President Obama on PBS. Photo: Screenshot.

International Business Times – U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed Sunday for the first time that he has communicated with Hassan Rouhani, the new Iranian president.

The president also said, for the first time publicly, that he has exchanged letters with Rouhani, who took office Aug. 3, over U.S. concerns regarding the Syrian civil war and the continuing standoff over Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Speaking Sunday morning on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” Obama said Iran’s nuclear program — which the U.S. and allies suspect is being used to develop nuclear weapons but Iran insists is for peaceful nuclear power development — “is a far larger issue” for the U.S. than the situation in Syria.

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