Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's visit to New York, where he took part in the UN General Assembly, has caused ambiguous reactions. On the one hand, Rouhani refused to meet with US President Barack Obama. On the other hand, he acknowledged the Holocaust and called it a "crime against the Jewish people," a statement that was impossible in the times of his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Vestnik Kavkaza discussed Rouhani's visit with the President of the Middle East Institute Yevgeny Satanovsky and member of the Moscow Carnegie Centre Alexey Malashenko.
According to Satanovsky, Rouhani refused to meet with Barack Obama because such a meeting would be a PR action for the US president. At the same time, the actual results of the meeting would probably not be essential.
The expert also believes that Rouhani's Holocaust remarks and the friendly tone may be a trick. Maybe Iran is trying to gain time in order to develop a nuclear bomb, Satanovsky says.
Malashenko believes the meeting wouldn't be beneficial for either president, as it wouldn't lead to any agreements. According to the expert, the Holocaust remarks only showed that Rouhani is a normal, sane person. "Any sane human being would acknowledge the Holocaust," he says.
