(CNN) -- The less-than-confrontational comments coming from new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani are not what the West is used to hearing from that country's office in recent years. Rouhani, a cleric and moderate politician elected in June, has signaled his desire for better engagement with the West, most recently in a Thursday Washington Post op-ed, in which he called for an end to "the unhealthy rivalries and interferences that fuel violence and drive us apart." Coming a week before he's to attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Rouhani's op-ed called for nations to work together on contentious issues such as Iran's nuclear program. And he offered to broker efforts to bring peace to Syria, a long-time Iranian ally torn by civil war.
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Hassan Rouhani holds a doctorate from a university in Scotland
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He had a long career in Iran's defense establishment
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A senior cleric, he was Iran's chief nuclear negotiator and writes on diplomacy
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He has made comments in support of Iran's rebellious Green Movement
"He says in his book that if it was up to him, he and his team would have come up with a solution that would not lead up to Iran's case being deferred to the @placeholder-- saying 'we could have done this, and some people in Iran and some in the West torpedoed it."