Hassan Rouhani waves to supporters as his motorcade pulls out of Tehran's Mehrabad airport. Photograph: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images
The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, was greeted by hardliners chanting "death to America" when he returned to Tehran following his historic telephone call with the US president, Barack Obama.
One protester threw a shoes at his car – a gesture of deep insult in Islamic countries. It missed, but others pelted his official car with eggs and stones, according to witness reports on Twitter.
About 100 hardline protesters were outnumbered by two to three times as many Rouhani supporters at the airport, shouting "thank you Rouhani". The president stood up through the sunroof to acknowledge the crowds.
Rouhani was returning from New York, where he attended the UN general assembly. On his way to the airport in New York on Friday, Rouhani had a 15-minute telephone conversation with Obama – the first contact between leaders of the two countries in more than three decades.
Iranian media said hundreds of Rouhani supporters turned up to hail his UN visit, where he fulfilled pledges of having "constructive interaction" with the world in order to ease Iran's international isolation and get punitive sanctions lifted.
The semi-official Mehr news agency ran pictures of groups of protesters holding up a "death to America" placard and banging the sides of Rouhani's limousine as it began to depart the airport. Mehr said one protester threw his shoes at the car.
There has been little reaction so far from Iran's political leaders but one senior parliamentarian tentatively welcomed Rouhani's conversation with Obama as a sign of the Islamic Republic's "position of authority".
"This [phonecall] shows that Iran's place in the world is of critical importance. That the president of America insists on a telephone call is a sign of sincerity," Mehr quoted the head of parliament's committee for national security and foreign affairs, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, as saying on Saturday.
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