WASHINGTON — Signaling a possible thaw in long-frozen relations, the Obama administration and the new leadership in Iran are communicating about Syria and are moving behind the scenes toward direct talks that both governments hope can ease the escalating confrontation over Tehran's nuclear program. 
 
 President Obama reportedly reached out to Iran's relatively moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, through an exchange of letters in recent weeks. The pragmatist cleric is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 24, and after years of the United States cold-shouldering his ultraconservative predecessor, U.S. officials say it's possible they will meet with Rouhani on the sidelines. 
 
 Beyond that, U.S. and Iranian officials are tentatively laying the groundwork for potential face-to-face talks between the two governments, the first in the rancorous 34 years since radical students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and founded the Islamic theocracy. Diplomatic relations have been broken ever since. 
 
 Both governments have issued conciliatory public statements in recent days that suggest a new willingness to scale back the tension. 
 
 Obama suggested in four TV interviews this week, for example, that Iran had played a constructive role in pushing Syrian President Bashar Assad to refrain from using chemical weapons. Iran is one of Syria's closest allies and supplies conventional arms to Assad's forces, so Rouhani may have considerable leverage in the Russian-led effort to disarm Syria of its toxic weapons. 
 
 "You know, one reason that this may have a chance of success is that even Syria's allies, like Iran, detest chemical weapons," Obama told CNN. "Iran, you know, unfortunately was the target of chemical weapons at the hands of Saddam Hussein back during the Iraq-Iran War.... And you know, I suspect that some of Assad's allies recognize the mistake he made in using these weapons and it may be that he is under pressure from them as well." 
 
 Washington and Tehran have exchanged private messages about the civil war in Syria, according to Iran's new foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, although he didn't reveal the substance. Analysts say Iran is trying to avoid having the Syrian chemical weapons crisis damage prospects for a potential resolution of Tehran's nuclear standoff with the West. 
 
 Zarif's prominent role marks a clear shift in Tehran. The graduate of San Francisco State University and the University of Denver, and a popular diplomat when he was Iran's envoy to the United Nations from 2002 to 2007, has been named to lead Iran's nuclear negotiating team. 
 
 Rouhani was elected in June after promising voters he would allow greater personal freedom and strengthen the economy. 
 
 Since he took office, Iran has scaled back its anti-Western invective and muted the Holocaust denials associated with the previous president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In perhaps the most jaw-dropping sign of change, Rouhani apparently sent a tweet this month wishing Jews a happy Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. 
 
 White House officials said Wednesday that they wouldn't confirm or comment on Obama's private correspondence. But Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said the administration was ready to talk if Iran was serious. 
 
 Rouhani's election "presents an opportunity for Iran to act quickly to resolve the international community's deep concerns over Iran's nuclear program," Meehan said. "Should this new government choose to engage substantially and seriously to meet its international obligations and find a peaceful solution to this issue, it will find a willing partner in the United States." 
 
 News organizations closely tied to Iran's ruling elite reported that in his letter, Obama proposed to "turn a new page" in relations, and held out a potential loosening of the economic sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy as part of an international effort to persuade Iran to give up nuclear development. 
 
 Obama urged Tehran to comply with the demands of the six world powers that have sought, unsuccessfully, to negotiate strict curbs on Iran's production of enriched uranium. Iran denies it is seeking to acquire a nuclear weapon. 
 
 Obama's letter was passed to Iranian officials in the final week of August, when Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman visited Tehran and met with Rouhani, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others, the reports said. Oman is close to both countries, and Qaboos has been eager to act as a mediator, even offering to hold U.S.-Iran talks in his country. 
 
 Iran replied with an undisclosed message, according to reports on the Tabnak website and the Fars News Agency. Both are linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the elite military organization at the heart of the Iranian government. 
 
 It's still unclear whether Tehran would give up uranium enrichment. It may be trying to drag out negotiations to avert more punishing economic sanctions while the country continues its drive to acquire nuclear capability, say U.S. officials and private analysts. Khamenei, the supreme leader, is considered extremely hostile to the United States. 
 
 But U.S. officials and experts say signs continue to accumulate that Iran intends to shift from a decade of stonewalling negotiations to at least a more open conversation. 
 
 Ray Takeyh, a former Obama administration advisor on Iran, said he believed the reported exchange of letters between Obama and Rouhani fit with other signals suggesting the two governments were serious about direct contact. 
 
 They "want to get together for talks, and perhaps for sustained ones," said Takeyh, an Iran specialist at the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations. 
 
 Takeyh said the White House outreach marked a shift from its position during international negotiations last year. At the time, U.S. officials pushed Iran to stop enriching uranium, ship its inventory of near-bomb-grade material out of the country, and close its deeply buried Fordow nuclear-enrichment facility. 
 
 If new talks take place, Takeyh said, the U.S. team must determine if Iran's attempted image makeover suggests a willingness to give ground, or if it is aimed at evading the kind of oversight the West has been demanding. 
 
 "Maybe the plan is to rebuild the image and make themselves look like a trustworthy member of the international community," he said. "Maybe the plan is to say: 'You can trust us with a nuclear program.'" 
 
 Obama's letter was probably made public by Iranian conservatives who are alarmed by Rouhani's possible overtures and want to build public opposition to any concessions to the United States, analysts said. Though there is powerful public pressure for sanctions relief, elements of the conservative elite remain strongly opposed to concessions. 
 
 Zarif this week denied a report about the letters carried in Al Hayat, an Arabic-language newspaper based in London. 
 
 Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an Iran specialist at Syracuse University, said Zarif's denial "was probably a sign that he doesn't want to be a target of the conservatives over this." But Boroujerdi said he, too, believed the reports of the letters were credible. 
 
 paul.richter@latimes.com 
 
 Special correspondent Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran and Times staff writer Shashank Bengali in Washington contributed to this report. ||||| Foreign ministers from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany will meet with Iran's top diplomat on Thursday to test the Islamic Republic's apparent willingness to reach a deal to resolve international concerns about its nuclear program after years of defiance. 
 
 Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, left, and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius shake hands before conducting a bilateral meeting during the 68th session of the United Nations General... (Associated Press) 
 
 The meeting on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly is aimed at paving the way for the first round of substantive negotiations on the nuclear issue since April, probably next month. It will also mark the highest-level, direct contact between the United States and Iran in six years as Secretary of State John Kerry comes face-to-face with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. 
 
 The United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany will participate with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton serving as host of the meeting. 
 
 Encouraged by signs that new Iranian President Hasan Rouhani will adopt a more moderate stance than his hard-line predecessor but skeptical that the country's supreme leader will allow a change in course, President Barack Obama directed Kerry to lead a new outreach to explore possibilities for resolving the long-standing dispute. However, Obama and other U.S. officials have said Iran must prove its commitment with actions, not just words. 
 
 Rouhani is in New York this week, making his debut on the world stage with an address to the General Assembly and a series of other speeches, news conferences and bilateral meetings. 
 
 During his visit, Iran has shown new urgency in reviving the stalled negotiations, seeking to ease crippling international sanctions as quickly as possible. Rouhani said Wednesday that "we have nothing to hide" and Zarif said he hoped his counterparts "have the same political will as we do to start serious negotiations with a view to reaching an agreement within the shortest span of time." 
 
 The West suspects Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon and has imposed crippling sanctions on Tehran that have slashed its vital oil exports and severely restricted its international bank transfers. Inflation has surged and the value of the local currency has plunged. 
 
 Tehran has repeatedly denied that its nuclear program is for anything other than peaceful purposes. 
 
 But since his June election, Rouhani has made clear he is seeking relief from the sanctions and has welcomed a new start in nuclear negotiations in hopes this could ease the economic pressure. He has said he has the full support of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on all important matters of state including the nuclear question. 
 
 "If there is political will on the other side, which we think there is, we are ready to talk," Rouhani told editors Wednesday in New York. "We believe the nuclear issue will be solved by negotiation." 
 
 In his speech to world leaders at the U.N. on Tuesday, Rouhani repeated Iran's long-standing demand that any nuclear agreement must recognize its right under international treaties to continue enriching uranium. The U.S. and its allies have long demanded a halt to enrichment, fearing Tehran could secretly build nuclear warheads. 
 
 Uranium enriched to low levels can be used as fuel for nuclear energy but at higher levels of enrichment, it could be used to build a nuclear weapon. 
 
 Rouhani also insisted in his speech that any deal be contingent on all other nations declaring their nuclear programs too are solely for peaceful purposes _ alluding to the U.S. and Israel. 
 
 Iran watchers say Rouhani may have limited time to reach a settlement _ possibly a year or less _ before Khamenei decides negotiations are fruitless. That may explain Zarif's call to reach a deal in the short time span. 
 
 "He is not negotiating for the sake of negotiating and dragging it out," Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Mideast program at the Wilson Center think-tank in Washington, said of Rouhani. "His reputation, and the country's reputation, is at stake. This is an issue they are willing to work on, and move to take concrete steps to serious negotiations." 
 
 Rouhani in New York has come across as a more moderate face of the hard-line clerical regime in Tehran. In particular, he appears to be trying to tone down the caustic rhetoric of his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with regard to Israel _ one of the points of friction in relations with the West. 
 
 Still his speech to the U.N. was peppered with Iran's traditional digs at America and the West _ a reminder that a diplomatic warming will not come quickly or easily. 
 
 Rouhani condemned "the Nazi massacre against Jews, Christians and others" in his remarks to editors on Wednesday. 
 
 "There is no way to ignore Nazi crimes against Jews," he said. But he added "it is important that those victimized not seek compensation by victimizing other groups" _ a pointed reference to what he has described as Israel's occupation and subjugation of Palestinians. 
 
 Citing the Quran, or Muslim holy book, Rouhani said that if any innocent person is killed, it is as if all of mankind has been killed." 
 
 Ahmadinejad, in contrast, once called the Holocaust a "myth" and later said more research was needed to determine whether it had really happened. 
 
 Israel's U.N. delegation walked out of Rouhani's speech Tuesday in protest. But in a text message statement sent to reporters on Wednesday, Finance Minister Yair Lapid said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's instruction to Israeli delegates to walk out was a "mistake." He said it created the impression that Israel was not interested in encouraging a peaceful solution to Iran's suspect nuclear program. 
 
 Rouhani said Iran must be careful in starting a new relationship with the U.S. after three decades of frozen ties, adding that his first goal is to reduce the distrust. He noted that there are radical voices in America and radical voices in Iran who would not like to see that happen, but said that the voices of moderation need to be strengthened and supported. 
 
 "The more two countries are apart, the more suspicions, fears and miscalculations creep in," he said in remarks that were initially supposed to be off the record. However, in response to requests from journalists, Rouhani agreed some of his remarks could be quoted. 
 
 He said he has no problem shaking hands with President Barack Obama. But he said he thought the first meeting between leaders of their two countries in more than three decades needed to be handled very carefully. There had been heated speculation that the two might meet at the U.N. on Tuesday and even exchange handshakes and pleasantries. But that did not happen. 
 
 The White House said Obama remains open to the possibility of an informal encounter with Rouhani at a future date. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press reporters John Daniszewski and Bonny Ghosh in New York and Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report. 
 
 Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP
– US-Iranian relations have been tense lately—and by "lately" we mean for more than three decades—but the election of moderate Hasan Rouhani may have changed all that. President Obama has been exchanging letters with Rouhani in recent weeks, the LA Times reports, and officials say it's possible the two will meet on the sidelines of the next UN General Assembly in two weeks. US and Iranian officials are also quietly working up to the first face-to-face talks between the nations since the Islamic Revolution. Both sides have been more cordial in public as well. Obama made a point of listing Iran as a potential ally in controlling Syria's chemical weapons in a recent interview, pointing out that Iran "detests" chemical weapons, having been on the receiving end of them in the Iran-Iraq war. (Naturally, he didn't mention the US' role in those attacks.) Rouhani, meanwhile, has been eschewing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's anti-Western bluster and Holocaust denials—he even sent a tweet wishing Jews a happy Rosh Hashanah. Another sign the new administration may be different: Iran's new envoy to the UN nuclear agency says he will cooperate with the agency to "overcome existing issues once and for all," Reuters reports. He also, however, said Iran won't give up its right to produce nuclear energy.