Iran moves to improve relations with the West

Iran wants to improve bilateral relations with the United States and other Western powers, president Hassan Rouhani said in an editorial published in a German newspaper, broaching an issue he has so far avoided since he took office.

Rouhani won a landslide election victory in June promising a policy of engagement with the West and has had regular diplomatic contacts with the United States, but they have been limited to negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

“We want to rebuild and improve our relations to European and North American countries on a basis of mutual respect,” he wrote in a contribution for the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.