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For Iran’s Leader, Time Is Not Yet Right for Meeting Obama For Iran’s Leader, Time Is Not Yet Right for Meeting Obama
(about 3 hours later)
TEHRAN — A reformist newspaper, Shargh, published photos on Wednesday of President Obama and Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, delivering their speeches at the United Nations, under the headline “Perhaps Another Time.” WASHINGTON — As he conducts a high-profile good-will visit to New York this week, Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, says he is bringing a simple message of peace and friendship. But on Wednesday, Mr. Rouhani set off a political storm here and in Iran, with a frank acknowledgment and condemnation of the Holocaust that landed him in precisely the kind of tangled dispute he had hoped to avoid.
The headline reflected a letdown among average Iranians at Mr. Rouhani’s decision to avoid meeting with Mr. Obama at the United Nations. But another paper, Kayhan, which represents the powerful conservative faction in the government, had a very different reaction, expressing horror at the possibility that “the clean hand of our president would for moments be in the bloody clench” of President Obama. Mr. Rouhani, in an interview on Tuesday with CNN, described the Holocaust as a “crime the Nazis created towards the Jews” and called it “reprehensible and condemnable.” It was a groundbreaking statement, given that his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, denied the systematic extermination of Jews during World War II. Mr. Rouhani largely repeated his comments in a meeting with media executives on Wednesday.
As he maneuvers toward nuclear negotiations he hopes can be completed quickly, Mr. Rouhani walks a razor’s edge at home. He has to navigate between domestic hard-liners who are skeptical of American intentions and sensitive to the slightest sign of Iranian weakness and the hopes of the average citizens who voted him into office and want Iran to end its isolation from the developed world. But a semiofficial Iranian news agency accused CNN of fabricating portions of Mr. Rouhani’s interview, saying he had not used the word Holocaust or characterized the Nazi mass murder as “reprehensible.” Mr. Rouhani spoke in Persian; officials at CNN said they used a translator provided by the Iranian government for the interview, which was conducted by Christiane Amanpour.
Mr. Rouhani’s visit to New York this week, after weeks of conciliatory diplomatic statements, stirred high expectations in the American news media and among the public in Iran. But the excitement, advisers and analysts close to the government in Tehran say, was getting out of hand. The dispute over his comments reflects the extreme delicacy of the Holocaust as an issue in Iranian-American relations. More broadly, it speaks to the political tightrope Mr. Rouhani is walking, trying to negotiate a nuclear deal with the United States that will ease sanctions to please everyday Iranians, without provoking a backlash by hard-liners.
Mr. Rouhani, who said Wednesday that he was open to a meeting with Mr. Obama at a later date, canceled because a meeting at this stage — in the absence of a strong gesture of good will from the Americans — would have made him look weak in coming talks and to the hard-liners back home. Such careful calculations prompted Mr. Rouhani to eschew a handshake with President Obama at the United Nations General Assembly. After weeks of conciliatory moves, including Iran’s freeing of political prisoners, Iranian and American officials said they believed Mr. Rouhani needed to placate hard-liners in Tehran, who would have bridled at images of an Iranian leader greeting an American president.
“First, we need to gain something from the Americans, before we pose and smile with them,” said Hamid-Reza Taraghi, an official who is one of the few trusted to interpret the speeches of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Of course, Mr. Rouhani also needed to convince some at home that he is not making any wild moves.” “Shaking hands with Obama would have won Rouhani huge points with the Iranian public, but it would have caused Iran’s hard-liners a conniption,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an expert on Iran at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
American officials played down the matter, saying it would have no effect on the negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. One senior official hinted it was too early for the Iranians to meet at a presidential level, saying it would be “too complicated” for Iran’s new leader. Mr. Rouhani avoided other land mines at the United Nations. His comments to the General Assembly, though less inflammatory than those of Mr. Ahmadinejad, touched on similar themes and grievances: the lack of international respect for Iran, the West’s refusal to recognize its right to enrich uranium, and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.
Analysts say that Mr. Rouhani and his team might have felt that meeting Mr. Obama before nuclear negotiations had even started would be a tactical mistake, undermining Mr. Rouhani’s position as Iran’s ultimate dealer, and that might in turn hurt his ability to step in at a later stage to break any potential logjams. But when Mr. Rouhani sat down later with Ms. Amanpour, he moved into fraught territory. Asked whether he shared his predecessor’s belief that the Holocaust was a myth, Mr. Rouhani replied, according to CNN’s translation, that he would leave it to historians to judge the “dimensions of the Holocaust.”
But Mr. Rouhani has to approach negotiations in a strategic sense as well, carefully managing domestic political constituencies as he approaches negotiations with the West. But he added, “In general, I can tell you that any crime or — that happens in history against humanity, including the crime that the Nazis committed towards the Jews, as well as non-Jewish people — is reprehensible and condemnable, as far as we are concerned.”
From the cheers of the hard-liners, it appears that Mr. Rouhani’s decision was a good one. “Mr. Rouhani made a very important and wise decision not to meet Mr. Obama, " said Amir Mohebbian, who is a political adviser to several Iranian leaders, including Ayatollah Khamenei. “This will be a long process. We need above everything rationality first, not sentiments.” The Iranian news agency, Fars, which has ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, posted its own translation of Mr. Rouhani’s answer, and claimed that he did not use the word “reprehensible” and that he said historians should be left to judge “historical events,” not “the Holocaust.”
Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, the leader of the armed forces, said, “Mr. President showed the explicit, revolutionary and firm positions of the Iranian nation to the world,” the Asr-e Iran Web site reported Wednesday. That translation resembles more closely the way Mr. Ahmadinejad used to discuss the issue. In an interview with CNN in 2012, he said: “Whatever event has taken place throughout history, or hasn’t taken place, I cannot judge that. Why should I judge that?”
“The respected president’s speech had a domestic message as well. He said that we not only must tolerate our opponents, but also we must work with them,” said General Firouzabadi, who in recent years has repeatedly threatened to have his forces close the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway to the oil-rich Persian Gulf. In what appeared to be an effort to head off criticism of Mr. Rouhani, Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Wednesday that the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, said the new president had presented Iran’s clear and revolutionary stands in his United Nations speech.
Some hard-liners even had kind words for President Obama, particularly his mention of a decree against nuclear weapons issued by Ayatollah Khamenei, something that they feel legitimizes the supreme leader internationally. Mr. Obama also warned that Mr. Rouhani’s “conciliatory words will have to be matched by actions that are transparent and verifiable.” Mr. Ahmadinejad’s refusal to recognize the Holocaust became a symbol of Tehran’s implacable hostility. For Israel, it is evidence that Iran is bent on its elimination, and this is why Israel is so determined to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“Obama’s speech had a different tone, with different ideas,” Gholam Ali Hadad Adel, a former head of Parliament who is related to Ayatollah Khamenei by marriage, was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Fars new agency on Wednesday. “This shows that American officials are trying to change their image.” While American Jewish leaders characterized Mr. Rouhani’s remarks as a step forward, they remained deeply skeptical of Iran’s intentions and its readiness to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
A potentially more important meeting than any between the two presidents is planned for Thursday, when Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, talks with representatives of world powers in New York, including Secretary of State John Kerry — the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that both countries would be talking even on the level of foreign ministers. “Assuming the accuracy of the translation, for me his comments are duly noted,” said David Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee. “But he’s only acknowledging, and rather belatedly, the universally acknowledged truth of the last 70 years. That does not warrant a standing ovation.”
“First, we have our foreign ministers talk,” Mr. Mohebbian said. “At a later stage our leaders can always meet, but Tuesday was too early.” Israeli officials reject Mr. Rouhani’s claim that the factual details of the Holocaust are a matter best left to historians.
Many Iranians, while disappointed that the leaders did not meet, said they understood the long and painful history between the countries and did not expect change to come overnight. A statement issued by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week declared, “It does not take a historian to recognize the existence of the Holocaust — it just requires being a human being.”
“Both men spoke really well, and in a positive tone that we haven’t heard before, said Mohammad Heydari, a building constructor from Isfahan, a city in central Iran. “If they go on like this, there will be reconciliation in some months, I am sure.” Mr. Netanyahu, rattled by Mr. Obama’s desire to engage Iran, has warned that Mr. Rouhani, with his professorial demeanor and moderate tone, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Yet Iran’s hard-liners, Mr. Sadjadpour said, “probably view him as sheep in wolf’s clothing.”
Others shared his optimism. “I am happy and hopeful,” said Mehdi Mohammadi, 27, a teacher. “They are taking appropriate steps. It doesn’t matter what is said on the podium of the U.N. What matters is what is said in the talks with the world powers.” The complex political crosscurrents were on display in the Iranian news media’s coverage of Mr. Rouhani’s day at the United Nations. A reformist newspaper, Shargh, published pictures of Mr. Rouhani and Mr. Obama during their speeches, with the headline “Perhaps Another Time” — a reflection of the letdown among average Iranians about the missed opportunity for a handshake.
But not all were optimistic. “I guess the honeymoon ended before it even really started,” said a 30-year-old engineer who asked not to be named. “Had they shook hands, everything would have been easier in the future; it would have moved the goal posts.” But another paper, Kayhan, which is close to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, expressed horror over the possibility that “the clean hand of our president would for moments be in the bloody clench” of Mr. Obama.
Mr. Rouhani has to move slow and carefully, said Saeed Laylaz, an economist who advises the government. He pointed out that during the two terms of President Mohammad Khatami, changes took place too soon, antagonizing Iran’s more conservative leaders. Advisers and analysts close to the government in Tehran said that after weeks of conciliatory statements and gestures by Mr. Rouhani, the excitement had gotten out of hand.
“We know our youths want to see changes fast,” Mr. Laylaz said. “But they have to be patient so we can bring lasting change.” “We need to gain something from the Americans, before we pose and smile with them,” said Hamid-Reza Taraghi, an official who is one of the few trusted to interpret the speeches of Ayatollah Khamenei. “Of course, Mr. Rouhani also needed to convince some at home that he is not making any wild moves.”
Mr. Rouhani himself suggested that a meeting would have been premature and might actually have jeopardized the longer-term goal of striking an agreement on the nuclear program. Speaking to editors and columnists in New York on Wednesday, he said, “I believe we did not have enough time to make it happen.”
“If we do not take our first steps carefully,” he said, “we may not at the very least be able to obtain mutual goals that are in our minds.”
White House officials, though deflated, said Mr. Rouhani’s decision showed he is an astute political player who knows how to calm hard-liners at home while charming audiences abroad. Those are skills they say he will need to navigate the treacherous waters of Iranian politics.
“The issue of the relationship between the United States and Iran is incredibly controversial within Iran,” said a senior administration official. “For them it was just too difficult to move forward with that type of encounter at the presidential level, at this juncture.”

Mark Landler reported from Washington, and Thomas Erdbrink from Tehran. Rick Gladstone contributed reporting from New York.