Iran’s new president and foreign minister say they want to see a peaceful approach to the West

President Masoud Pezeshkian and foreign minister Abbas Araghchi have been saying the same things about the direction they want to see foreign policy take in Iran .

Frida Ghitis : The new government has made some loud protestations of friendship with Russia , but these seem meant partly to reassure a jittery Vladimir Putin and play hard to get with the West .

She says if Iran wants to get to its domestic priorities, the West must become its foreign-policy priority.

Ghitis says Iran 's West-facing faction is back in the saddle.

Iran 's foreign ministry and several Iranian officials vehemently protested Russia 's support for a transit corridor to Azerbaijan .

Iran could even make its ties with Russia a bargaining chip, as the U.S. and its allies are surely keen to weaken them.

Iran ’s foreign-policy council, an authoritative body appointed by Khamenei , has criticized the project.

Iranian President Pezeshkian is visiting the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week .

The talk of universal harmony doesn't sit comfortably with Iran ’s track record of repressing its own population.

But it does signal a shift from just a year ago , when the hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi fulminated at a UN podium.