0 night with the former president of the united states. the bitter fighting in washington and swirling rumors about the campaign and his wife hillary clinton. his daughter chelsea will be joining us on thursday night. that's all, acc 360 later starts right now. >> good evening, everyone. for years, eastern's appearance in the united nations's general assembly has been many things, contentious, combative. explosive. they delivered venomous speeches at reliably empty rooms. today was historic. immediately after president rahouni. he spoke directly to the american people in english. listen. >> i would like to say to american people i bring peace and friendship from iranians to americans. >> we will hear more just ahead. rouhani's charm offensive many finds head spinning. the recent diplomat ig overtures, unexpected. and to some in the west, a look at how he got to this point. >> 1979, riots sweep the streets of tehran. iranians are fed up with the roum of the sha roum. the shah. he came into power in 1953. during his quarter century rule, he enjoyed support and good relations with the west. he's the last iranian leader to meet face-to-face with the u.s. president t. revolution sends the shah into exile and brings the return of the ayatollah co khomeni, calling the united states the great satid. in november, 1979, militants stormed the u.s. embassy in tahran. >> the acts of bar barrism, which were perpetrated on our people by iran can never be condoned. >> the u.s. responds by freezing iranian assets in the u.s. it takes 444 days before the hostages are finally free. >> some 30 minutes ago, the planes bearing our prisoners left iranian airspace and are now free. >> direct ties between the two countries are severed. the u.s. even supports iraq in its war against iran in the 1980s the tense relationship between the two countries continues through ascent u.s. administrations with washington imposeing sanctions on iran and accuseing the country of state sponsored terrorism. >> states like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil arming to threaten the peace of the world by seeking weapons of mass destruction. these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror. >> in 2005, hard-liner ahmed adinejab. he blames the united states for the september 11th terrorist attacks. >> some segments orchestrated the attack to the declining economy. it strips the middle east in order to save the zinist regime. >> now a possible fall between iran and the u.s. the effects are crippleing iran coupled with the election of president rouhani may bring about an open dialogue. they still must overcome a long history of mistrust. >> iranians have long complained about the u.s. history in their affairs and america's role in overthrowing iranian government during the cold war. on the other hand, americans see an iranian government that has declared the united states an enemy. >> there is a lot on the line. as you see, president obama spoke to the general assembly before two hours before president rouhani. he says he pursued a nuclear program and iran's words will have to be matched with actions. they're transparent and verifiable. there was a lot of discussion over whether they would meet on the side lines and shake hands. in the end, they did not. officials said it was too complicated. hear some of the interview. >> hello, mr. president. nice to see you. nice to see you again, exactly. please. welcome to cnn. thank you for doing this for us. i want to ask you what it feels like to be what some call the "it" man of this unga, highly anticipated. you seem to be the focus of attention, unusually for iranian presidents people are looking at you with at least cautious optimism. what does it feel like to be in this position? >> before responding to your question, i'd like to actually extend my greetings to the people of america who will very dear and near to the hearts of the iranian people and to wish them a good time and good times ahead. >> there was a lot of expectation, maybe too high expectations that you and president obama might at least shake hands today at the united nations. nobody thought there was going to be a formal meeting. but perhaps you would at least say hello. shake hands, break the ice, but you didn't. why done you? >> there were some talks about it. in fact, to perhaps arrange for a meeting between president obama and myself. so that given the opportunities to talk to each ochts t. united states declared its interest in having such a meeting and in principal could have under certain circumstance, aloud it to happen. i believe we didn't have sufficient time. speaking of the ice breaking you mentioned, it's already beginning to break because the environment is changing and that has come about as a result of the will of the people of iran to create a new era of relations between the people of iran and the rest of the world. >> are you authorized to start talking, negotiating with the united states? are you authorized be i the supreme leader back in iran? >> i think that the president of iran has the authority whenever the national interests of the country is involved and when it's necessary and expeddient and required to speak and touk with others in order to promote the rights of its nations, for circumstances to be laid properly, the supreme leader of iran has said that should negotiations be necessary for the national interests of the country, he is, in fact, not opposed to it. he has specifically mentioned it in a recent talk that he is not optimistic regarding the issue of talks with the united states but when it comes to specific issues, government officials may speak with their american counterparts. now, if an opportunity was created today, had arison today and the prep work for that had been done, most probably the talks would have taken place primarily focused on the nuclear issue or the developments on the middle east. therefore the supreme leader, i can tell you, has given information from my government to freely negotiate on these issues. >> one of the things your predecessor used to do from this very platform was deny the holocaust and pretend that it was a myth. i want to know you, your position on the holocaust. do you accept what it was and what was it? >> i have said before that i am not a historian and that when it comes to speaking the dimensions of the holocaust, it is the historians that should reflect on it. but in general, i can tell you that any crime that happens in history against humanity, including the crime, the nazis created towards the jews. it makes no difference if that life is jewish like, christian or muslim. for us, it is the same t. taking of mu h you man life is something our religion objects. this does not mean on the other hand you can say nazis committed crimes against the group, now, therefore, they must usurp the land of another group and occupy it. this, too, is an act that should be condemned. there should be an even-handed discussion. >> and, finally, can you give me a sentence in english that you would like to say to the american people? . >> i would like to say to american people i bring peace and friendship from iranians to americans. >> christine aymanpour joins me now. i have a few people from our christian institution. we know that the iranians pulled back, president rouhani said there wasn't enough time to set up the meeting. did that make sense to you? >> look, i think there was a lot of pipe i hype that it would be a formal meeting. it was never going to be that. you are right the white house indicated if somewhere on the seidlin there would be a and shake, a hello, an ice breaker? they were up for it and willing to do it. i had asked the iranian delegation since sunday was it going to happen? they said we haven't taken a decision on that yet. clearly, they didn't take a decision. it didn't happen. but i think, you know, and suddenly the americans believed that it was because of complications that he would face in iran if he did it. look, there are a lot of complications. but i do think the serious nature of what he is saying in terms of being given the authority to negotiate by the supreme leader and the consensus has been arrived at in iran to negotiate on a nuclear issue. he said other regional issues. i asked about direct bilateral issues be i the united states. the fact that he has the authority is the key issue. president obama named secretary of state kerry and the iranians have named their foreign minister, american educated. well known to many american officials as the key negotiators on these very issues. >> so to you, that's the most significant thing you have heard in this interview, that he has the authority to negotiate? >> well, look, i think it is a buying deal. i have been here before. i interviewed the then reformed president many years ago. le said many of the same things. the difference was, he has admitted and written about it that he didn't have the backing of the supreme leader nor the consensus. so i do believe that is a very big development and just the meeting between secretaries kerry will be a change, a big deal. it hasn't happened at that level. the other things she says, he was willing to build confidence. i questioned him on confidence. there is no confidence is what iran says it is doing on the issue of full transparency. we went through the framework. obviously, they want sanctions lifted. all of that, he was very forthcoming on the issue of tweeting. iranians don't have access to social media. he says he wants to make sure they did have it. on human rights he wants to make sure shaye have more ability. there are a lot of things i heard. >> i want to play for on that. do you buy that explanation about the meeting? you never thought a meeting was wise? >> no, i don't find the explanation. clearly, the supreme leader has given rouhani some rope to play and we need to investigate how far he can play. but i think we see already their limits. this morning and in the newspaper, the official mouthpiece of the regime, it was said that rouhani should not shake the president's hands and he didn't do it. i think it's a little of a power game. they sense we are running after them they are going to play hard to get. >> does it sounds like the u.s. had the rug pulled out underneath it? does it make the u.s. look bad for offering? >> i think it made the u.s. look a little clumsy against diplomacy. it was a little embarrassing when the leader was willing to meet and somebody else basically snubbed him. i think that that was an embarrassing moment. but i think it's small to go back to christine's points it may ultimately be a footnote. the larger picture is that the obama administration deserves credit along with the bush administration in bringing these sanctions to bear. >> that is what br is bringing president rouhani to the table. >> they clearly have teeth? >> they clearly have teeth t. revenue is half of what it have been. they got the highest inflation rate in 145 countries around the world. it's been going up rapidly. they are under a lot of pressure at home from people in the streets. now, we saws a christian said we saw back in the clinton years can khatemi. then they really pulled back and pulled the rug out on him when he went and that whole thing fell apart. i think what is what is giving us all a lot of caution. >> i want to play your exchange about the nuclear issue. what is he willing to do in a concrete way? let's listen? >> in broad. what is it that you are willing to do to inspire confidence? i know i asked you already. i don't hear you saying. maybe i don't understand, but clearly what people want is full transparency. so is iran, yes or no, willing to give that level of confidence that there is no doubt that what you say you are doing you are actually doing? >> over 40 countries have enrichment capacities and many of them have ongoing enrichments. what is the difference between iran and those countries? now, there are countries that have not even accepted the m.p. t or even agreed to work with the iaea that iran has accepted and is committed to the m.p. t. iran has accepted and committed itself to the safeguards agreement. all of itzhaktists are under the supervision of iaea. >> he is saying also, that there are cameras all over the place, that they haven't devated. >> that the iaea is happy with iran. >> that is simply fought accurate. >> it is and it isn't. there are cameras, iran is cooperateing under the strict terms 069 iaea. and the non-proliferation treaty. americans want to know if iran is willing to go over and above to give more transparency. many of his aids say, yes, iran is willing to do that. he wasn't going to negotiate with me in an interview. i pushed him on 20% enrichment and capacity. he wouldn't bite on. that he wouldn't boy on the plan, the underground plant that everybody talked about, which has the more centrifuges. i found interesting he did seem to indicate there is another issue we all know about. >> that is a heavy water reactor called iraq at iraq and many people are worried that that could be used for plutonium extrangs. that's another way, if it was so desired to go towards a weapon and that may be coming on line. it was designed to come on line in the spring. he indicated there was flexibility to putting that on the table. i thought that was quite interesting. that was where he indicated there may be -- to be honest with you. >> that itself the thing that many people are worried about in terms of a point of no return. >> do you buy the explanation from robin? >> i thought david's point that the symbolism today of them snubbing us is a small one. it was a good one. but i think it's symbolic of the danger we have here, with i is that we are perceived as running after them and we have to be careful about our own exuberance. if we get involved in a negotiation with them and they immediately turn and and they say, you know what, to continue this negotiation, you will going to have to start lifting sanctions, we will find ourselves very quickly making concessions to them in return for continuation of process. it's extremely dangerous, i think. >> we will have more of the interview. >> anderson. >> yes, go ahead. >> that issue is the real crux. there has to be reciprocity, proportional reciprocity. if we give you this, you have to give us this and that until the situation is over f. the u.s. doesn't do that, according to iranians that, will be a deal breaker and this window will close. basically, he has to gobaing with something to show for what they're doing. i'm not sure the u.s. is 51ing after them. they look more like they are eager to do this. as you say, the sanctions are dirty. >> they say that's preconditions. >> absolutely. i do think that president obama has his own pressures back home and that's going to be, he's going to be under enormous pressure from both parties and experts not to make concessions early. he has a history when he goeshts of making a preemptory negotiation. >> e-mail me at anderson cooper. i will be tweeth. ahead, kenya's president says the seige of the mall is finally over after three floors collapsed. is it over? also a live shot where senator ted cruz is conducting a marathon protest speech against obamacare. we will see how long he is willing to stand at the podium and what, if anything, it might actually accomplish .