Exclusive Interview With Iran's President
COOPER: And welcome back. You are watching CNN's special coverage of Pope Francis in America. His final day here in Philadelphia. What a two days it has been. In fact, we have just learned that Pope Francis has decided to make an extra stop today that was not on his itinerary. He is going to be visiting St. Joseph's University, which is a Jesuit college. Pope Francis is, of course, a Jesuit himself. He'll be meeting with students there and religious leaders. They'll also going to unveil a statue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Vatican to document that transform the relationship between the church and the Jewish faith. And of course, we are going to be bringing you all of the Pope's motorcade because the streets here are just filled with hundreds of thousands of people waiting to get a glimpse of Pope Francis. President Obama and other world leaders are speaking at a U.N. development summit today in New York. They are focusing on how to end poverty and hunger around the world. There is a number of other stories we want to tell you about now. Iran's president Hassan Rouhani addressed the same U.N. summit yesterday. He also sat down for an exclusive television interview with our chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. Christiane joins me from New York. So Rouhani talked about possibly releasing an American journalist. What did he have to say?</s>CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he did, Anderson. And he also talked about the Pope has been talking about, the war in Syria, the refugees, religious persecution. He said about the Russian movement into Syria that Putin told him about it and said he'd already told the Obama administration. He also acknowledged that all sides now seem to believe that Assad is going to stay for the foreseeable future in the fight against ISIS. But in this part of the interview that we are going to see, he spoke about the GOP political reaction to the Iran nuclear deal and he also he did answer my question about whether we could see our colleague Jason</s>HASSAN ROUHANI, IRANIAN PRESIDENT(through translator): First of all, what is spoken of here in the United States of America sometimes when I would have time, some of it was broadcast live and I would watch it. Some of it was quite laughable. It was very strange the things that they spoke of. Some of them wouldn't even know where Tehran was in relation to Iran. Some of them didn't know where Iran was geographically. So the people of Iran were looking at it as a form of entertainment, if you will, and found it laughable. The other issue is that, yes, certainly in the United States some are opposed to it and some are for this agreement. However, the issue of the joint comprehensive plan of action is not just an issue of Iran and the United States. It's an international issue, it is an international agreement. So any government that replaces the current government must keep itself committed to the commitments of the previous administration otherwise that government that entire country will lose trust internationally.</s>AMANPOUR: Let's move on to something that is very, very concerning to the people of the United States of America. You hold four Americans. Some of them have dual citizenship including our colleague, Jason Rezaian. I would like to know whether you as a government feel that this legal process, whatever it might be, is expedited so that these people can be freed. And I speak particularly of my own colleague, Jason Rezaian.</s>ROUHANI (through translator): Now, being imprisoned in Iran has nothing to do with a nuclear negotiations and subsequent agreement. But he I'll ask you this. There are a number of Iranians in the United States who are imprisoned, who went to prison in result of activities related to the nuclear industry in Iran. And today the U.N. Security Council has agreed, according to resolution 2231, to lift those sanctions. Once these sanctions have been lifted, why keep those folks in American prisons? So they must be freed. If the Americans take the appropriate steps and set them free, certainly the right environment will be open and the right circumstances will be created for us to do everything within our power and our purview to bring about the swiftest freedom for the Americans held in Iran as well.</s>AMANPOUR: So you see, Anderson, he's setting up sort of a prisoner swap, a prisoner exchange. We'll see how that goes. Obviously, the families of those American, including Rezaian, are desperate to get their loved ones back.</s>COOPER: Yes, no doubt about that. Christiane, appreciate that. Thanks very much. We will have more of that interview throughout the day. Coming up next, we'll also talk to the brother of an American held in an Iranian prison. We will get his reaction to the message from Iran's president. We will be right back.