Iran Deputy FM: Americans have never been reliable

After 34 years of silence, the leaders of Iran and America finally talked directly on the phone, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told American President Barack Obama to "have a good day."

That warm sentiment had a bucket of cold water tossed on it almost immediately, because when Rouhani returned to Tehran last week after the phone call his motorcade was greeted in part by people tossing eggs at it and chanting "Death to America."

Furthering that sentiment, Abbas Araghchi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, said Monday that Americans have never been reliable, according to the state-run Mehr News Agency.

"We will not trust them either in the future," Araghchi is quoted as saying.

At issue is the resumption of talks designed to dismantle Iran's secretive nuclear program. The Iranian delegation that attended the U.N. General Assembly in New York last week met on the sidelines with key players in the hopes of starting to set up a framework to resume the talks.

"After fruitful New York meeting, we will have Geneva, and then the probable format of future negotiations will be agreed," Araghchi is quoted as saying.

The skepticism over the move toward new talks also runs deep in the U.S. Congress. Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz., expressed doubts last week about the moderate front Rouhani has displayed so far on the international stage.

"Mr. Rouhani is the same guy who bragged about how he deceived the negotiators back in 2000 to 2004 when he was negotiator for the Iranians where he carried on conversations and they went from 150 centrifuges to 1,000," McCain said over the weekend.

There is plenty of evidence, however, that Iran wants to make real strides in negotiations, in no small part because sanctions related to its nuclear program are crippling the Iranian economy.

The White House said recently sanctions have created negative economic growth in Iran, led to double digit unemployment, and cut oil exports in half.

Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said Sunday on "Face the Nation" that Americans should remember well how much Iran does not want to self-destruct, which is why negotiators should press forward with the latest overture from Iran on nuclear talks.

"We have to take into account the fact that this is a significant historical nation that has lasted for 3,000 years, has a glorious history," Brzenzinski said. "It's not a crazy nation, not suicidal."

"Think of the Soviet Union," Brzezinski continued. "The Soviet Union was led by leadership that killed millions of people. It acquired nuclear weapons. It was threatening us. We managed to negotiate with it, we managed to have arrangements to stabilize the nuclear arms race, minimize the prospects of war. We can do it with the Iranians, absolutely, provided we don't listen to advice that is extreme and pathological."