Republican strategist Karl Rove warned President Barack Obama against any one-on-one meetings with the Iranian president who will be in New York at the United Nations this week.
"Don't sit down with him," Rove said on "Fox News Sunday." "This is the government that is underwriting Hezbollah."
Rove said a meeting between Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani would be "disheartening" to America's allies because Rouhani has not proven he can be trusted.
"He's charming and subtle, but he is a charming and subtle thug just like his predecessor was an uncharming, unsubtle thug," Rove said. "Words are cheap. Let's see some action from him. There's nothing that he has said or done … that gives us any confidence they're going to be any different."
Former Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, appearing on the same show, said there's no reason Obama should refuse a meeting with the leader.
"As a matter of course, you better talk to people before you think about bombing them because maybe you don't have to get to aggression," he said. "We need to take a different approach. We could use this as an opportunity not only to ask Iran to put aside its nuclear technology but to look at our own policies and work toward nuclear abolition."
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