Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other government officials have compared Iran's human rights record favorably to other countries, particularly countries that have criticized Iran's record. In a 2008 speech, he replied to a question about human rights by stating that Iran has fewer prisoners than the US and "the human rights situation in Iran is relatively a good one, when compared ... with some European countries and the United States."
Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration
After the election of centrist moderate Hassan Rouhani as President in 2013, Iran started a new stage of dialogue in its foreign relations in a bid to improve relations with the west. At Rouhani's official visit to New York City to attend the United Nations General Assembly, Obama requested a bilateral meeting with Rouhani, which didn't take place due to time restraints according to Rouhani. Rouhani stated that more time was needed to organise a proper meeting between the two countries' leaders due to the troubled past relationship of the two nations. On 27 September 2013, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Secretary of State John Kerry held a one-on-one meeting, the first between the U.S. and Iran in a generation. The rare get-together was groundbreaking, according to Iranian analysts. One day later, Obama and Rouhani spoke with each other on the phone, the highest level of communication between the two nations leaders since the Iranian Revolution of 1979.