U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Friday that the Iranian regime delegation approached the Obama administration about a phone call between President Barack Obama and the Iranian regime’s president Hassan Rouhani, CNN reported.
The request came after indicating earlier in the week that a direct meeting at the UN General Assembly would not be possible due to internal political reality in Iran.
“Today, somewhat surprisingly, we were contacted by them to say that President Rouhani would like to speak to President Obama on the telephone on his way out of town, and we were able to make that call come together and it was a constructive conversation,” Rice said.
According to Rice, Friday’s call lasted about 15 minutes. “Of course, with translation, it was a brief call, but sufficient to convey messages from both sides,” she said.
“Obviously when you have two leaders from two countries that have not communicated at that level for almost 35 years, it’s something of a ground-breaking event. But they both conveyed their commitment to try and explore in a constructive manner the diplomatic path,” Rice said.
Rice reiterated that a nuclear weapon in Iran is unacceptable to Obama. For his part, Rouhani has said Iran has no interest in ever obtaining a nuclear weapon, although that assertion has been met with some skepticism, CNN reported.
“It’s way too soon to presume either the prospect of an agreement on the nuclear program, which we hope to be able to achieve, but we’re quite sober about the potential for that,” Rice said.
“If we could have a peaceful resolution of the nuclear program and an end to Iran’s support for terrorism and other behavior that has concerned us over many years, then we could begin a serious discussion about the future.”
