united nations meeting and wishing jews this month a blessed rosh hashanah. experts say look at his background. he lived in exile in paris with ayatollah, the force behind iran s revolution. he s viewed as completely loyal to iran s current supreme leader. there is caution about moving too fast. i think a more normalization relations between the united states and iran is unrealistic. reporter: for both obama and rouhani, it may take time for the same reason. each has the challenge of politics. president obama has to be very sensitive to concerns about israel s national security and tehran, president rouhani can t appear to conciliatory towards the united states and certainly can t appear to be friendly toward israel. reporter: so why is rouhani stepping back from iran s
will. i think the president of iran will leave here and president obama will leave new york with an improved climate, maybe not a handshake, but at the end of the day, i think it s going in the right direction. jim, to you in jerusalem, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, who s obviously pretty rattled by a warming possibility between the leaders of the u.s. and iran, saying any nuclear deal with the iranian government could be a trap. what did he mean by that? reporter: you know, israel s view of the upcoming rouhani speech is an indirect one. don t be taken in by smiling faces and optimistic, vague promises. get the facts. listen but with care. understand the whole time iran has been negotiating with the west over the past four years, it s been making really strong advances towards being able to produce a nuclear weapon. now, i can tell you this right now. we know that israel s delegation will not be in the room. the prime minister has told his
naive. i thought the president s speech today was a little cooler on the idea of a brek through on the possibility of diplomacy than it might have been. there was definitely wear weariness in his comments as there has been, even as white house officials talk about the possibility there could have been a meeting in new york this week. a lot of caveats. they always come back to the idea of deeds being more important than words and wanting to see whether iranians have substantively changed their negotiating position. i think that just remains to be seen. i think on that point, frank, you get the last question, which is, you know, talk about words versus deeds. what is it that iran, what is it that the president of iran here would need to do to perhaps change your view, not rhetoric, not promises, but what actions would you need to see for u.s., for the administration to be able to trust him. two things. to speak to your previous question to michael, this is a guy we actually know some
brought to fruition in the iranian islamic republican coming, i think, to pass and unfortunately probably being used. michael frank is not alone in his deep skepticism. you hear from israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu saying, listen, rouhani is a wolf in sheep s clothing. is there anything we know about rouhani that might suggest otherwise, that he is being genuine, that barack obama will not end up flat on his back, to go with the metaphor? it s very difficult to say what his true intentions are. he has done everything so far that would be consistent with someone who s being sincere and who wants to deliver and who wants to make a deal. you know, if you listen to the rhetoric from it the obama white house, they re not kind of swooning here. they re not being starry eyed. i think they re very careful about not coming across as
relationship. one based on mutual interests and mutual respect. president obama telling his secretary of state john kerry to work with iran s government and this new leader hasan rouhani, specifically on iran s nuclear program. another big headline, a message for israelis and palestinians. the president saying all parties must be willing to take risks in order to achieve middle east peace. we have correspondents all throughout the world for you covering every angle of this, including our foreign affairs reporter at the u.n. in new york, cnn international s jim clancy for us in jerusalem, and reza in tehran. elise, i want to begin with you. the last time a u.s. president met with a leader of iran, it was 35 years ago. jimmy carter. if it happens at all, here s my question. what s the chance this handshake everyone is talking about and waiting for, what s the chance