Tehran reax to historic telephone call between Rouhani and Obama

Описание: (28 Sep 2013) Citizens of Tehran on Saturday appeared to generally welcome the news of a historic phone conversation between President Hassan Rouhani and US President Barack Obama the previous day.
Iranians awoke Saturday to learn that Rouhani, had spoken directly to Obama, breaking through a barrier that had left American and Iranian presidents divorced from such contact for 34 years.
Ahead of Rouhani's trip to New York, many Iranians were eagerly awaiting a handshake between the two leaders, hoping that would end more than thirty years of hostility, paving the way for an end to the painful sanctions imposed by the West against Iran because of its nuclear programme.
Hopes vanished as Rouhani rejected American offers for an encounter at the UN, saying the timing wasn't right.
But a surprise phone call late on Friday resurrected hopes that Tehran and Washington could resolve their disputes.
"I'm very happy that the talks (phone conversation between Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani) happened. I hope that after these talks the economic problems of Iranians are eased," said Yazdi, a Tehran resident.
Sanctions against Iran's banking system have made it difficult to import medicine, among other things.
"We have a lot of people with refractory diseases that have run into a lot of problems since the sanctions were imposed. I also hope Iran's currency gains a bit more," Yazdi added.
"This phone conversation will have a very good effect. I'm personally sure it will," said another local, Bahrami.
While Ahmadian believed "the phone call was a good start."
Amir Mohebbian, a conservative political analyst said he had been surprised by the speed at which the development in Iran-US relations have happened over the last couple of weeks.
"It seems that more progress was made than what we initially expected. It was presumed that, given the deep pessimism between the two countries for more than thirty years, more time would have been required, but developments occurred very fast," he said.
"Today, only one day after the phone conversation, some radicals in Iran have started to react negatively. I think they are not powerful enough. Their power depends on the way the US will behave. The more demands by the US, and the more unlikely resolving the issue becomes, the stronger radical voices will get in Iran, and they will pressure the government (to abandon reaching out to US)," said added.
"The train of the talks to improve Iran-West relations is now on the track, and has even moved passed the first station, and the radicals will no longer be able to stop it," Mohebbian added.

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