Iranian’s U.N. Speech Appears to Favor Engagement

President Hassan Rouhani suggested on Monday in his United Nations speech that the nuclear agreement with major powers including the United States had helped create the basis for a broader engagement, in what appeared to be a difference — in tone, at least — with his own leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Addressing the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting, Mr. Rouhani spent considerable time extolling the diplomatic success of the agreement. It will lift years of painful economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for verifiable guarantees that its nuclear activities remain peaceful. In what would have seemed unthinkable a few years ago, when Mr. Rouhani’s predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, emphasized what he viewed as the evils of the United States in his United Nations speeches, there were no shrill anti-American denunciations.