In his first speech at the UN General Assembly, Iran's new President Hassan Rouhani announced Tehran's readiness for talks on the Iranian nuclear program, commented on the situation around Syria and US foreign policy. According to AP, his speech was compared to the rhetoric of his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and as a result was considered relatively moderate. Commenting on Rouhani's words, Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, noted that Ahmadinejad had set the bar too low for decent behavior, so "given the toxicity of Ahmadinejad's rhetoric, Rouhani naturally appears to be a moderate politician."

In an interview with CNN, Rouhani, unlike Ahmadinejad, surprisingly acknowledged the Holocaust, saying that Nazi crimes against Jews were worthy of condemnation. However, at the UN General Assembly, he condemned the "occupation of Palestine" and "aggression against the innocent Palestinian people."

Ahmadinejad did not recognize the Holocaust, and Israel called for it to be wiped off the face of the earth. Two days before the inauguration, Rouhani called the "Zionist regime" "an ulcer on the body of the Muslim world that must be removed" after many years. Then came the clarification that he was talking exclusively about the rights of the Palestinian people and about supporting their struggle for freedom.

Analysts found more similarities with Ahmadinejad's rhetoric in Rouhani's words about the United States. The Iranian president criticized "remnants of the Cold War mentality" and attempts to divide the world into "the superior us" and "the inferior others" and a rich and civilized center and a poor and wild periphery. Such an ideology, according to him, leads to international relations being reduced to a monologue, as well as to the strengthening of xenophobia, including Islamophobia, Shiitephobia and Iranophobia, all of which threatens peace and security.

Rouhani called the current sanctions against Iran harsh and said he was ready for negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program aimed at achieving a concrete result. According to him, this problem should be solved through diplomacy. He assured that the "Iranian nuclear threat" is purely a figment of the imagination and Iran does not pose any danger to its neighbors or the rest of the world, the BBC quotes.

Even before Rouhani's speech, US President Barack Obama said he was impressed by the Iranian president's relatively moderate policies. The Israeli delegation boycotted the Iranian leader's speech, but then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called his speech hypocritical and cynical.

Iranian President Condemns Holocaust