Phone conversation between Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani

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Barack Obama on the telephone with Hassan Rouhani Barack Obama on the telephone with Hassan Rouhani.jpg
Barack Obama on the telephone with Hassan Rouhani

The phone conversation between Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani took place on September 27, 2013 during Rouhani's trip to New York. The 15-minute [1] telephone conversation was the first communication between the two countries since ties were severed in 1979. [2] [3] [4] Hundreds of international news agencies and newspapers headlined their news coverage by telephone calls from Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani. [5]

Contents

Event

In the final hours of Friday, September 27, 2013, while Hassan Rouhani and the Iranian delegation participating in the 68th General Assembly of the United Nations were about to return to Iran from John F. Kennedy Airport, Hassan Rouhani for the first time in history of the Islamic Republic of Iran spoke directly to US President Barack Obama by telephone while sitting in a limousine heading to the airport, [6] The phone call mostly emphasizing the political will of the two sides to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue quickly and setting the stage for resolving other issues and cooperating on regional issues. The news of this phone call quickly became the first news of the international media and it was referred to as a historical event. In the conversation, Rouhani ended the call by saying, "Have a Nice Day!" and Obama responded by saying "Thank you. Khodahafez (goodbye)." [7] This phone call, because it was the first telephone conversation of the President of Iran with the President of the United States and was considered as the first verbal contact of senior officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran with senior US officials, was strongly reflected in the media inside and outside Iran. [8]

U.S. initiative

The Tehran Today [9] newspaper wrote that Rouhani considered the talks to be held at the request of the American side. The American side also said that it had requested a dialogue with Iran. [10] Rouhani stated: [11]

The American officials insisted and sought for a meeting between the two presidents, and before I left Iran, a few days before the trip, they sent the first message, which was on Friday, my trip would be on Monday. Their next message was also sent on the same Friday, and they sent a total of 5 messages on Saturday and Sunday, and we did not respond to these messages, and I told my friends at the Foreign Ministry that I would make a decision when I arrived in New York, and it was discussed, and in the end, this meeting did not take place because there was no opportunity to agree on the details regarding all dimensions and angles. The discussion was that, for example, a short meeting of a few minutes between me and the President of the United States should take place in the corridors of the General Assembly or one of the meetings that we are participating in. (...) There was some promises between our Minister of Foreign Affairs and the United States' Secretary of State about that on Friday (...) that Mr. Obama would call and have a brief phone conversation with us, which finally happened at the moment of departure, as they called our Ambassador's cell phone.

Rouhani and Obama's remarks

Regarding the issues raised in the telephone conversation, Rouhani said that the discussion he had with Obama was mainly the nuclear issue. He said that "this issue is not only the right of the Iranian people but also a part of the national pride of the Iranian". He continued: Regarding the P5 + 1, he said that "with the opportunity created by the Iranian nation, this opportunity should be used and expedited in this matter", so the President of the United States said "I instruct the Secretary of State to expedite this matter;" Their main focus was to move faster on the nuclear issue. [12] [13] After the call, Barack Obama said on a television program: "Just now, I spoke on the phone with President Rouhani. Our conversation was about the current actions and efforts to reach an agreement on Iran's nuclear program." [14] [15]

Rouhani said that in this regard:

I spoke with Mr. Obama on the phone, and this relationship between the two nations can be the beginning of a long way ahead. [16] Of course, not all our problems with the West can be solved by a phone call or a meeting. From the very first letter that Mr. Obama wrote to me after the presidential election and congratulated me on the election, and other issues that he raised in the letter, and according to this phone call, it is quite clear that the viewpoint has changed. Obama told me on the phone that we have a lot of problems inside and you have a lot of problems inside Iran, so we have to think about how to overcome these problems.

Rouhani stressed that Obama also said on the phone that they both emphasized in his speech that he is not looking for nuclear weapons and that the supreme leader of Iran also said that the production of weapons is forbidden by Islamic law (fatwa), so the way is open to achieve results, but both nations should know that foreign policy issues are not a smooth path ahead. Rather, they have a difficult road ahead of them, and the problems of eight or ten years cannot be solved in ten days. Rouhani said about this phone call: [11] [17]

In my opinion, on the issue of Iran and the United States, we have a lot of problems, and I told Mr. Obama on this phone that there has been a very dark atmosphere between Iran and the United States for the past 35 years, and our nation were opposed to US actions on various occasions. It is not a problem that can be solved in the short term, and he replied that I also said that it can not be solved on one night and we need time.

Iran's internal reactions

Affirmative

Negative

Other opinions

Reactions outside Iran

Aftermath

In 2019, Rouhani redefended the move, saying, "If our Minister of Foreign Affairs had not met with the United States' Secretary of State in New York and I did not answer Obama's phone, the agreement would have been difficult and slow." [38]

See also

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