President Ha**an Rouhani - Interview With Christiane Amanpour lyrics

ROUHANI: ...perhaps arrange for a meeting between President Obama and myself, so that given the opportunity, we can talk with each other. And preparation for the work was done a bit as well. The United States declared its interest in having such a meeting and in principle could have under certain circumstances allowed it to happen, but I believe we didn't have sufficient time to really coordinate the meeting. But speaking at the ice-breaking that you mentioned, it's already beginning to break because the environment is changing and that has come about as a result of the will of the people of Iran to create a new era of relations between the people of Iran and the rest of world. AMANPOUR: Are you authorized to start talking, negotiating with the United States? Are you authorized by the Supreme Leader back in Iran? ROUHANI: I think that the president of Iran has the authority whenever the national interest the country is involved and when it's necessary and expedient and required to speak and talk with others in order to promote the rights of its nation's... ...for circumstances to be laid properly the Supreme Leader of Iran has said that, should negotiations be necessary for the national interest of the country, he is in fact not opposed to it. He has specifically mentioned it in a recent talk, that he is "not optimistic" regarding the issue of talks with the United States, but when it comes to specific issues, government officials may speak with their American counterparts. Now, if an opportunity was created today, had risen today, and the prep work for that had been done, most probably the talks would have taken place, primarily focused on the nuclear issue or the developments on the Middle East. Therefore, Supreme Leader, I can tell you, has given permission for my government to freely negotiate on these issues. AMANPOUR: One of the things your predecessor used to do from this very platform was, deny the Holocaust and pretend that it was a myth. I want to know your position on the holocaust. Do you accept what it was, and what was it? ROUHANI: I've said before that I am not a historian, and that when it comes to speaking of the dimensions of the Holocaust, it is the historians that should reflect on it. But in general I can tell you that any crime that happens in history against humanity, including the crime the Nazis created against the Jews, is reprehensible. Whatever criminality they committed against the Jews, we condemn [...] It makes no difference whether that life is a Jewish life, Christian, or m**m. For us it is the same. The taking of human life is something our religion rejects.