Rohani: Sanctions roadblock to progress

Iran's president is en route to New York after urging the West to heed his appeals for greater dialogue and denouncing economic sanctions as a dead-end strategy. Hassan Rohani said Monday that he hopes to use this week's annual UN General Assembly gathering to win Western promises to restart stalled talks over Tehran's nuclear program.

Rohani is urging the US and allies to ease sanctions to move ahead the negotiations. He also called sanctions "unacceptable and illegal," a roadblock to progress on settling the nuclear impasse. (AP)