A date with the great Satan
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by Gareth Smith October 8, 2013

written by Gareth Smith October 8, 2013

The phone call between Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations, the first direct contact between presidents of Iran and the United States in three decades, signals the seizing of a chance to advance relations between the two countries and potentially open up debate over Iran’s nuclear program and US sanctions. The earlier agreement between the US and Russia over Syria’s chemical arsenal had given Obama the opportunity to reach out to Iran while making it clear Washington regards Iran’s nuclear program as a far more serious potential threat. The arrival of Hassan Rouhani as president has brought a shift in Iran’s policy towards Syria as well as the US. New foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke last month of “grave mistakes” made by the Assad regime that had “unfortunately, paved the way for the situation in the country to be abused.” Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani directly

Gareth Smith

Gareth Smith was a distinguished journalist who reported from the Middle East for over two decades. He served as the Financial Times correspondent in Tehran, where he was the chief Iran correspondent from 2003, following his earlier role as Lebanon correspondent. Throughout his career, Smith covered Middle Eastern affairs for leading media outlets, including The Financial Times, The Guardian, and the BBC. He also contributed as an editor to Executive magazine. His work as a freelance journalist in the 1990s, focusing on the politics of Iran and Iraq, paved the way for his appointment at the FT. In 2009, he relocated to the west coast of Ireland, where he balanced freelance journalism with his passion for nature and the land.

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A date with the great Satan
EN AR