BICOM

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has told the BBC that Iran would consider a summit between US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

Speaking to the BBC’s Lyse Doucet in New York, Zarif said Iran has “not shut the door” to a summit, “provided it is a reliable meeting”. Referring to the US-North Korea summit earlier this year, Zarif said that Iran would not meet with the US if the outcome were to be “a photo opportunity and a two-page document”. He added: “We have a 150-page document, negotiated with six world powers. I can assure the US it will not get a better deal than the JCPOA [nuclear deal].”

He said Iran is willing to be a “little more patient” to see if the EU’s special financial mechanism to allow companies to avoid US sanctions will work. When questioned about the Trump administration’s policy, Zarif said that “sanctions have had their impact, but they are mostly psychological than actual”.

He also criticised US President Trump’s approach to international diplomacy, saying “international relations is not about falling in love, it is about respecting obligations. The nuclear deal is not a personal deal between myself and [former US Secretary of State] Kerry, but an international agreement between seven countries and included in a UN Security Council resolution”.

The UN’s nuclear agency said yesterday that its independence is paramount and it does not take intelligence presented to it at face value. The statement was in response to criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said the IAEA ignored Israeli intelligence about what what he called Iran’s “secret atomic warehouse” and urged the IAEA to send inspectors to the site.