President Barack Obama said that he will be open to direct talks between Iran and the United States but only if the Muslim country is serious about getting rid of its nuclear weapons program, the White House said on Thursday, as reported by Reuters.
When he first ran for President, Obama said in a debate that he would hold direct negotiations with Iran, much to the consternation and ridicule of others.
"It's possible but it has always been possible. The extended hand has been there from the moment the president was sworn in," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters in comments after the newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rohani sat down for an NBC interview with Ann Curry.
Rohani said that his country has never sought and will never seek a nuclear bomb.
"We have never pursued or sought a nuclear bomb and we are not going to do so. We have time and again said that under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever," Rohani said through an interpreter.
While striking some political observers as more moderate than his predecsssor Mahmud Ahmedinijahd, Rouhani blasted Israel as "an occupier and usurper government [that] dos injustice to the people of the region, and has brought instability to the region, with its warmongering policies.'
Rouhani also deflected a question about whether or not he views the Holocaust as a "myth," like his predecessor openly said.
"I'm not a historian. I'm a politician. What is important for us is that the countries of the region and the people grow closer to each other, and that they are able to prevent aggression and injustice," Rouhani said.
Israel said the Rouhani interview was an attempt at global deception: "One must not be fooled by the Iranian president's fraudulent words," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office delivered in a statement. "The Iranians are spinning in the media so that the centrifuges can keep on spinning,"
Iranian proxy groups like Hezbollah and Hamas have engaged in terrorism for years. The Jewish State has not ruled out strikes against potential nuclear sites, arguing that the possession of nuclear weapons by Iran constitutes a global threat to the world.
Rouhani is due to address the United Nations General Assembly next week.
