ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is going to the United Nations to "tell the truth in the face of the sweet talk and the onslaught of smiles", a reference to Iran's diplomatic overtures to the West.
It is the Israeli government's first reaction to last week's telephone call between US President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the first such phone call between US and Iranian presidents in three decades.
Mr Netanyahu is travelling to the US to meet with Mr Obama and to address the UN General Assembly which is meeting in New York.
The Israeli leader is sceptical about Mr Rouhani as Israel believes Iran is continuing to build nuclear weapons capability and that it threatens Israel.
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian politician says a single phone conversation between the US and Iranian presidents is not a sign that relations with Washington will be quickly restored.
The comments by Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi appear aimed at calming Iranian hard-liners who oppose rapidly easing the 34-year diplomatic freeze with the US.
Some critics of Mr Rouhani shouted insults and hurled shoes at him - a huge insult in the Arab world - after his return from the annual UN gathering in New York, which included the groundbreaking 15-minute call with President Barack Obama.
Mr Araghchi was quoted by the Fars news agency yesterday as saying "normal relations" with Washington will need more than "a phone call, meeting or negotiations" - a reference to Iran's efforts to restart stalled talks over its nuclear programme.
The US and Iran broke ties after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the siege at the US embassy in Tehran.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article