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The Iranian president’s deputy chief of staff told Iranian media that Mr. Rouhani visited Pope Francis at the Vatican on Monday. The two had discussed the “threats of bullying” that nations face around the world, the deputy chief of staff, Rafaat Moustafa Ahmadi, said in comments to the website of the state Islamic Republic News Agency. Mr. Rouhani and Pope Francis issued a joint statement, in which they affirmed their “deep concern about the danger of nuclear weapons and of the prospect of nuclear weapons in particular.”
[email protected] released a video describing his meeting with Pope Francis to support the nuclear deal reached with the US, Iran and Germany in 2015. The visit to the Vatican comes two days after Mr. Rouhani met with Mr. Obama at the White House.
. @HassanRouhani was Iran’s Supreme Leader in 2013. The country’s post-1949 constitution required men to be of “great religious literacy,” though, “learning the language of Persian does not necessarily mean being fluent in Persian.” Mr. Rouhani is Iranian born, but speaks with an Italian accent.
. Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who brought the country to the brink of war with Israel, has endorsed Mr. Rouhani for a second term. Ahmadinejad is the subject of two investigations by a Revolutionary Court. In 2015, an Iranian court convicted him of “carrying out anti-state propaganda on behalf of the Zionist regime” and sentenced him to six years in prison and a hefty fine. After his release, Ahmadinejad was hailed by Donald Trump as the “greatest” possible president to unseat Hillary Clinton. In 2014, Ahmadinejad was disqualified from running for a third term.