15-minute phone call ends history of silence

President Barack Obama and new Iranian President Hassan Rowhani spoke by telephone on Friday, the highest-level contact between the two countries in three decades and a sign that they are serious about reaching a pact on Tehran’s nuclear program. The call is the culmination of a dramatic shift in tone between Iran and the US, which had cut diplomatic relations with Iran a year after the 1979 revolution that toppled US ally Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and led to the US embassy hostage crisis in Tehran. The White House quickly arranged the call, which took place at 2:30 pm (1830GMT) and lasted about 15 minutes. Mr Obama has said for years he was open to direct contact with Iran while also stressing that all options — including military strikes — were on the table to prevent Iran building a nuclear bomb. The US President had hoped to meet with the relatively moderate Rowhani at the UN General Assembly in New York this week, but the Iranian side decided an encounter was too complicated, in what was seen by White House officials as an effort to avoid antagonising hardliners in Tehran. On Friday, however, the Iranians said Mr Rowhani expressed interest in a phone discussion before he left the US, according to a senior administration official.