The Arabic-language Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Jarida, added President Obama is willing to be the first American president who would visit Iran since the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in that country, the Islamic republic news agency reported.
Al-Jarida was quoting a US diplomatic source.
The source said that President Obama is willing to visit Iran by mid-2014.
Late in September, the Iranian and the US presidents talked over phone before President Rouhani’s departure from New York.
The two presidents talked over the phone as President Rouhani was in a car and heading towards the New York International Airport.
President Rouhani and President Obama discussed different issues during their phone conversation.
The Iranian and US presidents underlined the need for a political will for expediting resolution of West’s standoff with Iran over the latter’s nuclear program.
President Rouhani and President Obama stressed the necessity for mutual cooperation on different regional issues.
On Friday, President Rouhani underscored that Iran and the US have to begin confidence-building measures before they could repair their damaged ties.
Speaking in an interview with The Financial Times published on Friday, the Iranian president said that the ongoing nuclear negotiations are allowing the two sides to “test” whether they are capable of having a different relationship.
“Problems of 35 years cannot be resolved in a short period of time. We need to decrease tensions at this stage and create mutual trust step by step,” President Rouhani underlined. “If the steps taken in (the interim nuclear deal agreed in) Geneva are implemented carefully and precisely, it would mean that we have taken one step forward towards trust,” he added.
“I found him (US President Barack Obama) to be someone with very polite and smart language,” said the Iranian president, adding, “The problems with the US are very complicated ... but despite the complexities there has been an opening over the past 100 days which can later widen.”
The United States and Iran broke diplomatic relations in April 1980, after Iranian students seized the United States' espionage center at its embassy in Tehran. The two countries have had tense relations ever since, but have shown willingness to attend talks to help resolve regional issues, including security in Iraq. Yet, the two countries have avoided talks on bilateral issues for the last thirty years.
