Mr. Rouhani declined to offer any new details on the arrest and incarceration of two journalists working for foreign newspapers who have been detained by Iranian authorities for the last two months. He said the fate of Jason Rezaiain of the Washington Post and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi of Au-Dhabi-based newspaper, The National, lay in the hands of the Iranian judiciary, and suggested he was powerless to intervene.

"The judiciary has not rendered a judgment" on their case, he said, but he added, that "I hope there will soon be some finality for them."