Iranian Cleric Criticizes Ahmadi Nejad’s “Coarse Slogans”

A top Iranian cleric on Wednesday told a foreign policy forum that the country was not being helped by President Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad’s use of "coarse slogans" against Israel. Hassan Rowhani, who used to serve as a nuclear negotiator, told the conference that rather than using coarse slogans and grandstanding, the nation would be better served by finding "an accommodating way to decrease the threats and assure the interests of the country." The French news agency AFP reported that Rowhani warned, "If the international community thinks that a country wants to play troublemaker and eliminate others, it will not let the country do this and will confront it. We must act in such a way that the world understands that we are ready for more flexibility and more dialogue."