DHAKA: US president Barack Obama said on Tuesday that Iran’s new president Hassan Rohani appears to want to open a dialogue with the United States and that he is willing to test whether this is the case.

Obama’s comment in an interview with Spanish-language network Telemundo was the latest indication the president would like to jump from the crisis over Syria’s chemical weapons to a new search for a diplomatic deal to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon.

‘There is an opportunity here for diplomacy,’ Obama told Univision, reports The Jerusalem Post.

‘And I hope the Iranians take advantage of it.’

‘There are indications that Rohani, the new president, is somebody who is looking to open dialogue with the West and with the United States, in a way that we haven’t seen in the past. And so we should test it,’ Obama said.

BDST: 1423 HRS, SEPT 18, 2013
RoR/BSK