Iraian president strike stunning new tone, calling US 'great nation'

UNITED NATIONS (AP)

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the United States a "great" nation Friday in a sharp reversal from his predecessors and expressed hope that at the very least the two governments can stop the escalation of tensions.

Wrapping up his first trip to the United States as Iran's new leader, Rouhani said President Barack Obama struck a new tone in his U.N. speech this week, which he welcomed.

He said he believes the first step to a meeting between the two leaders was taken Thursday at a meeting on Iran's nuclear program, where the foreign ministers of both nations talked for the first time in six years. The White House announced Friday afternoon that Rouhani and Obama spoke on the phone.

"I want it to be the case that this trip will be a first step, and a beginning for better and constructive relations with countries of the world as well as a first step for a better relationship between the two great nations of Iran and the United States of America," Rouhani told a press conference at a hotel near U.N. headquarters.

Iran and the United States have traded harsh rhetoric for years.

During the 1979 Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile, seized power and declared the U.S., which was a strong supporter of the ousted Shah of Iran, the "Great Satan." He set the tone for Iranian officials who came after him. The U.S. was equally critical, with then-President George W. Bush, in his 2002 State of the Union address, declaring Iran part of his "axis of evil" along with North Korea and Iraq.

Rouhani, looking to the future of U.S.-Iranian relations, expressed hope that "the views of our people, the understanding of each other, will grow, and at the level of the two governments that at the very least we can, as a first step, stop further escalation of tensions and then reduce tension as a next step and then pave the way for achieving of mutual interests."