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As West negotiates with Iran, Israel takes hard line
By Mick Krever, CNN
To the U.S. and Europe, renewed nuclear negotiations with Iran are a reason for cautious optimism.
For Israel, they may be a sign that the international communities is trying to “get Iran off the hook.”
That’s a according to Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, who spoke with CNN’s Hala Gorani, in for Christiane Amanpour, on Wednesday.
“People forget this, but back in 2006, you had the beginning of six U.N. Security Council resolutions under Chapter Seven of the U.N. Charter that said Iran must suspend all uranium enrichment activity,” Gold said.
“We would expect that the international community would stick to those original concepts, those original resolutions,” he told Gorani, “and not start thinking about, well, how can we get Iran off the hook.”
FULL interview – Robert Einhorn
Above is Christiane Amanpour's full interview with Robert Einhorn, Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Non-Proliferation.
Iran nuclear talks ‘detailed,’ and ‘substantive’ says lead U.S. negotiator Wendy Sherman
By Mick Krever, CNN
The lead U.S. negotiator for Iran’s nuclear program called the first two days of a new round of direct talks “detailed” and “substantive.”
“Foreign Minister Zarif and his delegation came prepared for detailed, substantive discussion with a candor that I certainly have not heard in the two years I’ve been meeting with Iranians,” U.S. Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday, adding that her Western colleagues who had more experience with Iran agreed.
“We’re trying to pick up the pace of this, to move quickly, because we don’t want Iran’s nuclear program to keep moving forward,” Sherman said.
These initial talks covered the counties’ objectives – Sherman said that negotiators knew going into it that they were unlikely to immediately reach concrete agreements.
“This is highly technical work, when you’re talking about a nuclear program,” she said.
These talks were for the first time conducted in English, which Sherman said “increased the pace the ability to have direct and candid discussions.”
West can ‘do business’ with Rouhani, former counterpart Jack Straw tells Amanpour
By Mick Krever, CNN
Portraying Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as a genuine pragmatist, Former UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw expressed optimism to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday that a nuclear deal with the West was possible.
Direct nuclear talks, ushered in by the election of Rouhani earlier this year, began Tuesday in Geneva.
Straw, as foreign secretary, worked closely on the nuclear file with Rouhani, when he was head of nuclear negotiations under President Mohammad Khatami.
“You could do business with him, and we were able to do business with him,” Straw told Amanpour. “I very profoundly believe that [this] is a new chance for proper negotiations.”
Sceptics in the West, and Israel, have welcomed President Rouhani’s words but said they need to see actions – a sentiment mirrored in Iran when talking about the West.
“President Rouhani is an Iranian and he represents Iran’s national interest, so people have got to factor that in, and it’s entirely right that he should do that,” Straw said.
Iran: ‘we are ready’ for a nuclear deal
By Mick Krever, CNN
Iran is serious about resolving the dispute over its nuclear program, and is keen to resolve the issue “in a short period of time,” the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Ali Larijani, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.
“From Iran's side, I can say that we are ready,” Larijani said from Geneva.
“If the Americans and other countries say that Iran should not develop a nuclear bomb or should not move towards that,” he told Amanpour, “then we can clearly show and prove that. We have no such intention. So it can be resolved in a very short period of time.”
Netanyahu makes #IranJeans trend on Twitter
By Samuel Burke, CNN
Fashion and foreign affairs are crossing paths on Iranian social media.
“#Jeans” has been a top trend on Twitter in Iran over the past few days and it all has to do with a comment from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In an interview with BBC Persian late last week, Netanyahu criticized the lack of freedoms in the Iranian electoral process, which now-President Hassan Rouhani won in June.
But during the interview Netanyahu said, “I think if the Iranian people had their way they’d be wearing blue jeans, they’d have western music, they’d have free elections…”
Twitter founder Dorsey and Iran President Rouhani exchange tweets
The founder and chairman of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, exchanged tweets with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday.
Dorsey started the exchange:
Just over five hours later, the Twitter account representing Rouhani's office replied, and referenced his interview last week with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
Iran president acknowledges Holocaust, talks Syria and Twitter
Part 1: Amanpour and Iran's Pres Rouhani
Part one of CNN's Christiane Amanpour's interview with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in New York.
Part 2: Amanpour and Iran's Pres Rouhani
Part two of CNN's Christiane Amanpour's interview with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in New York.
If you are viewing this on a mobile phone and cannot play the video, you can watch part 1 here and part 2 here.
By Josh Levs and Mick Krever, CNN
Iran's new president has acknowledged that Nazis killed Jews, furthering the stark contrast between himself and his predecessor, who called the Holocaust a "myth."
In a wide-ranging interview with CNN, he also discussed Israel and Syria.
"Any crime that happens in history against humanity, including the crime the Nazis committed towards the Jews as well as non-Jews, was reprehensible and condemnable," President Hassan Rouhani said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
"Whatever criminality they committed against the Jews, we condemn, because genocide, the taking of the human life, is condemnable and it makes no difference whether that life is a Jewish life, a Christian or a Muslim or what. For us it's the same."
He also referred to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
ENTIRE INTERVIEW: Amanpour/Rouhani
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the full interview and accompanying transcript of CNN's Christiane Amanpour's conversation with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST: Mr. President, welcome. Welcome to the program. Thank you for joining us.
PRES. HASSAN ROUHANI, IRAN (through translator): I thank your program and you for preparing this interview.
Amanpour: Why Rouhani may be different
By Christiane Amanpour, CNN
Hassan Rouhani is the fourth Iranian President I have interviewed, and each time these discussions seem to come at crucial times.
I was struck by the fact that he agreed to say a sentence or two in English to reach the American people in their own language, saying he was bringing peace and friendship from Iran.
I recall the huge excitement there was the first time when the first reform president, Mohammad Khatami, sat down with me and delivered what many called his manifesto for moderation: change and freedom … that was in 1998.
Like Rouhani, he too was the “mullah with a smiling face” and spoke words on CNN that truly changed the tone of the country’s relations with the rest of the world.
But soon it was clear that Khatami did not have the mandate from the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, and hardliners quickly swept away his reforms, and people’s hopes. The brief Tehran Spring withered and died.
I asked Rouhani: What would be different this time?
@camanpour on Twitter
