Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of Iran’s most influential political leaders, has raised hopes of a comprehensive nuclear deal with world powers within a year.
In a rare interview in Tehran Mr Rafsanjani told the Financial Times that Sunday’s interim deal had been the hardest step because it meant overcoming decades of diplomatic estrangement with the US that goes back to Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
“It was breaking the ice. The second stage will be more routine,” said the former two-term Iranian president, sitting serenely in his book-lined office in an elegant Tehran palace that once belonged to the late Shah ousted in the revolution.