Who’s afraid of a handshake?
With President Hassan Rouhani in New York for UN General Assembly, the issue of a possible handshake between Rouhani and the US president is a prime concern in Iranian media.
As Iranian President Hassan Rouhani left Tehran for New York yesterday, Sept. 22, for the 69th UN General Assembly, various conservatives held conferences and published op-eds warning the president about the nuclear negotiations to take place on the sidelines of the assembly and against a possible handshake with the US president. Supporters of the president have also voiced their opinions via open letters and Twitter.
Tehran University professor Sadegh Zibakalam wrote in a Sept. 21 open letter to Rouhani, “You have not yet set foot on the plane and extremists have pre-emptively started beating the anti-American drums on the matter of you meeting with the American President Barack Obama and [saying] that you do not have permission to do so.”
