NEW YORK, (PNA/Itar-Tass) — The Administration is preparing for possible meetings with representatives of Iranian authorities next week in the UN and doesn’t rule out a direct contact of US President Barak Obama with the new Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani.
This was reported by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
On the next week presidents of the US and Iran will be in New York and address the UN General Assembly.
White House officials said Obama currently has no planned meeting with Rouhani.
“But the two sides have communicated ahead of what could be the first face-to-face interaction between an American and a president of the Islamic republic,” the paper writes.
“Relations are so poor, officials said, that even a handshake would mark a significant turning point. No
American president has met a top Iranian leader since Islamic radicals overthrew the pro-American Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979”.
Answering a question about a possible Obama-Rouhani meeting at the UN General Assembly session, White House press secretary Jay Carney stated on Wednesday that such a contact was not planned.
However, he added that the US President believes in the possibility of solving the Iranian nuclear issue by diplomatic means.
The US leader notified about this the Iranian president in a letter.
“In his (Obama’s) letter the president indicated that the US is ready to resolve the nuclear issue in a way that allows Iran to demonstrate that its nuclear program is for exclusively peaceful purposes,” the White House press secretary said.