As Holocaust dispute flares, Khamenei aides rap Rouhani for conciliatory gestures

Analysts and advisers close to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized Iranian President Hasan Rouhani’s recent gestures to the West and his conciliatory statements, expressing concern that it may have gotten out of hand.

According to a report in the New York Times Wednesday, the Iranian paper, Kayhan, which is close to Khamenei, “expressed horror over the possibility that ‘the clean hand of our president would for moments be in the bloody clench’ of [US President Barack] Obama.”

“We need to gain something from the Americans, before we pose and smile with them,” the report quoted Hamid-Reza Taraghi, an official who trusted with interpreting the speeches of Khamenei, as saying. “Of course, Mr. Rouhani also needed to convince some at home that he is not making any wild moves.”

Rouhani declined an American offer for a meeting with Obama on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly currently underway in New York, American officials said Tuesday.

-snip-

On Wednesday, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, said to be close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, claimed that CNN fabricated remarks made by Rouhani in an interview Tuesday with Christiane Amanpour in which he condemned the Holocaust as a crime against humanity.

-snip-

http://www.timesofisrael.com/khamenei-aides-criticize-rouhani-for-conciliatory-gestures-statements