President Donald Trump invited Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to the White House last month at the height of tensions between the two countries, a magazine has reported. The invitation, extended by Senator Rand Paul with permission from the President, was turned down for now, The New Yorker reported on Friday. The minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said it was up to Tehran to decide on accepting it.
The report quoted U.S. and Iranian sources and what the magazine called a well-placed diplomat. Mr. Zarif told the magazine he would not want a White House meeting that yielded just a photo opportunity and a two-page statement afterwards, The New Yorker said.
Mr. Trump has said publicly several times that he is willing to hold talks with the Iranians even as he lambasted the Iranian state as a corrupt, incompetent and dangerous regime that is a threat to regional security and U.S. interests.
Last year Mr. Trump pulled the U.S. out of an international accord designed to curb Iran's nuclear program, and has reimposed sanctions on Iran — and even slapped them on Zarif this week —in an effort to force it to renegotiate the agreement.
Mr. Paul had been working for weeks on setting up a meeting with Mr. Zarif and on July 15, conferred with him in New York, passing on an invitation from Mr. Trump for him to come to the White House, the magazine said. At the one hour meeting, Mr. Zarif suggested ways to end the nuclear impasse, said the magazine.
Mr. Zarif also said on Saturday that Iran will take another step to reduce its compliance with the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, according to parliamentary news agency ICANA.
“The third step in reducing commitments to (the nuclear deal) will be implemented in the current situation,” he said. “We have said that if (the deal) is not completely implemented by others then we will also implement it in the same incomplete manner. And of course all of our actions have been within the framework of (the deal).”
Tensions soared in the Gulf in June and July amid attacks on oil tankers, Iran's downing of an unmanned U.S. surveillance drone and after the U.S. said it had downed an Iranian drone.
Mr. Trump has said the attack against the US drone prompted him to order a military strike in response, only to call it off at the last minute.
