Iran Leader Hints at Disapproval Over Obama Call

Iran's top leader said Saturday that some aspects of Hassan Rouhani's trip to New York last month were "not appropriate," but reiterated his crucial support for the president's policy of outreach to the West.

The comments by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, summarized Saturday on his website khamenei.ir, came after hard-liners criticized a 15-minute phone conversation between Rouhani and U.S. President Barack Obama, a gesture aimed at ending three decades of estrangement between the two countries.

Hard-liners, including commanders in the powerful Revolutionary Guard, have said the president went too far in reaching out to the U.S.

Khamenei also said the U.S. was not "trustworthy." He has previously said he's not opposed to direct talks with the U.S. to resolve Iran's nuclear standoff with the West but is not optimistic.

"We support the government's diplomatic moves including the New York trip because we have faith (in them)," Khamenei said. "But some of what happened in the New York trip was not appropriate."

"We are skeptical of Americans and have no trust in them at all. The American government is untrustworthy, arrogant, illogical and a promise-breaker. It's a government captured by the international Zionism network," said Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state.

Rouhani's outreach has received broad support from Iranian legislators and it appears popular, but some including the Guard appear rattled by the pace of developments.

The Guard chief commander, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, praised Rouhani recently but called the phone call a "tactical mistake" and said he should have avoided it.

"The respected president, who adopted a powerful and appropriate position in the trip ... would have been better off avoiding the telephone conversation with Obama — in the same way he didn't give time for a meeting with Obama — and left such measures until after practical, verifiable steps by the U.S. government and a test of their good will," he said in an interview earlier this week.

The Guard is one of the few institutions capable of standing up and pushing to reverse course and acting as a spoiler if it sees Rouhani going too far and too fast.

Iran is at loggerheads with the U.S. over its disputed nuclear program, which the West says aims at developing weapons technology. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes.

U.S. talks with Iran must be based on concrete steps by Tehran - Kerry

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TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that the United States hopes to engage with the new Iranian administration, but Tehran must first prove it is willing to end the stand-off over its nuclear weapons program.

If Iran intends to be peaceful, "I believe there is a way to get there," Kerry told a news conference in Tokyo after a meeting of U.S. and Japanese defences and foreign ministers.

Kerry expressed hope that engagement with President Hassan Rouhani's government can succeed but said nothing would be taken at face value.

Discussions would be based on a series of steps that guarantee "we have certainty about what is happening," Kerry said.

In a charm offensive at U.N. meetings in New York last week, Iran expressed willingness to resolve the 10-year-old dispute with the United States over its nuclear program, a move that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed as a ruse concocted by a "wolf in sheep's clothing".

Addressing Netanyahu's concerns over talks with Iran, Kerry said: "We are firmly determined that Israel's security remains paramount."

He dismissed suggestions that the United States was being played by Iran.
"There is nothing here that is going to be taken at face-value and we've made that clear," Kerry said. "The president has said, and I have said, that it is not words that will make a difference, it's actions, and the actions are clearly going to have to be sufficient."

The United States, Israel and other countries accuse Iran of using its nuclear program to try to develop the capability to produce weapons. Iran says the program is for peaceful purposes only.

"It would be diplomatic malpractice of the worst order" for the United States not to explore opportunities, said Kerry, who met his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif at the United Nations last week, the highest-level official meeting between the United States and Iran in more than three decades.

"We are going to look very very carefully at this. We hope it could work because we think the world would be better off," Kerry said, adding: "A country that genuinely wants to have a peaceful program does not have difficulty proving that it is in fact peaceful, so this ought to be able to be done.

"The test we face over these next weeks and months, not a long period of time, is to determine whether or not that is in fact what Iran intends," Kerry added.

Iran parliament endorses Rouhani's diplomatic gambit

(Reuters) - Iran's parliament

The backing from the assembly, controlled by political factions deeply loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is a further sign that Rouhani has the support of the Iranian establishment, though there are some rumblings from hardliners.

Khamenei, the most powerful figure in Iran, has yet to comment publicly on Rouhani's trip.
Rouhani briefed parliamentarians on his trip, including discussions on Iran's nuclear dispute with the West and regional relations, the student news agency ISNA said.

A group of 230 parliamentarians, out of the total of 290, signed a statement expressing their support of Rouhani for presenting the image of a "powerful and peace-seeking Iran which seeks talks and interaction for the settlement of regional and international issues", Fars news agency said.

While Rouhani's visit to New York boosted hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough in talks to resolve the 10-year-old dispute over Iran's nuclear program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed it on Tuesday as a ruse concocted by a "wolf in sheep's clothing".

The United States, Israel and other countries accuse Iran of using its nuclear program as a veil for efforts to try to develop the capability to produce weapons. Iran says the program is for peaceful energy purposes only.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Netanyahu and "the Zionist lobby" were trying to hinder negotiations.

"We will not let Netanyahu determine the future of our talks," Zarif wrote on his Facebook page. The next round of nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers is to take place in Geneva on October 15-16.

POSSIBLE RESOLUTIONS
Such is the mistrust between Iran and the West that a big sticking point of negotiations over Tehran's disputed nuclear program has been who should make the first move.

Iran has insisted the United States and the European Union should ease sanctions before it makes any concessions over enriching uranium, while Western powers have argued the reverse.

Western powers are however considering easing their long-standing demand that Iran suspend all enrichment as part of a possible deal to resolve the dispute that Rouhani says he wants to reach within months, a senior EU diplomat said.

"I believe part of the game is that if the Iranians prove that whatever they are doing is peaceful, it will, as I understand, be possible for them to conduct it," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told Reuters.
Lithuania holds the rotating presidency of the European Union until the end of this year, giving Linkevicius a closer insight into many policy debates.

"It's conditional. It is not a done deal, but nevertheless it is a possibility to explore," he said. "Thanks to this rapprochement. How it will look, we don't know."

But both Rouhani and Obama face domestic opposition to rapprochement from those who fear their president may be too willing to grant concessions before the other side takes any concrete steps.

U.S. Republicans argue that it is the sanctions that have brought about Iran's greater apparent willingness to at least discuss compromise over some aspects of its nuclear activities and so therefore now is not the time to ease pressure on Tehran.

But Rouhani said on Wednesday a growing international consensus favored lifting sanctions against Iran.
"During my visit to New York, many of the officials of countries made moves to have meetings with the Iranian delegations and they were saying that sanctions are ineffective and some of them even said they were unjust," the student news agency ISNA quoted Rouhani as telling a cabinet meeting.

"It appears that the international environment is such that sanctions need to be put to one side," he said, but did not say which countries wanted the sanctions to be eased.

The strongest sanctions are those of the United States and the European Union on Iran's oil, gas, banking and shipping sectors and neither Washington nor Brussels has shown any sign of easing sanctions soon, at least not before Iran acts.

In Iran's view, Rouhani has taken a big step already by talking directly to Obama and now it is the turn of the United States to show evidence of its own good will.

"In my view what American officials say is not important. What is important is that they have understood that sanctions against Iran are useless," Mehr news agency quoted Rouhani as saying.
"The problems of eight years or a decade certainly can't be solved in eight or 10 days."

OPTIMISM AND SUSPICION
Separate talks between Iran and the U.N. atomic watchdog in Vienna last week however appeared to make little real headway, though both sides described their discussions as "constructive".

One Western diplomat said he had the impression that Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency were relatively "optimistic" after the meeting. Another envoy said the discussions had been focused and the atmosphere positive.

The Iran-IAEA meeting was a "good harbinger of better relations", said Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank. "There is a new mood of optimism in Vienna that finally there is a way forward," he said.

But even as Iranian conservatives fall in line behind Rouhani there were signs of unease within their ranks.
Parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani praised Rouhani's address to the U.N. General Assembly, ISNA said. But Larijani, a champion of the conservative establishment, made no specific mention of Rouhani's phone call with Obama.

The head of the powerful Revolutionary Guards said on Monday the call had been premature, a possible beginning of resistance to the relative moderate Rouhani from Iranian hardliners.