US President Donald Trump invited Iran’s foreign minister to the White House last month at the height of tensions between the two countries, a magazine reports. The invitation, extended by Senator Rand Paul with permission from the president, was turned down for now, The New Yorker reported Friday.
The minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said it was up to Tehran to decide on accepting it. Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to AFP requests for comment on the report, which quoted US and Iranian sources and what the magazine called a well-placed diplomat.
Zarif told the magazine he would not want a White House meeting that yielded just a photo op and a two page statement afterwards, The New Yorker said. Trump has said publicly several times that he is willing to hold talks with the Iranians even as he lambasts Tehran as a corrupt, incompetent and dangerous regime that is a threat to regional security and US interests.