Iran’s new FM to visit New York for UN General Assembly

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s new foreign minister leaves tomorrow on his first official trip to the United States, where he will meet counterparts from countries party to the 2015 nuclear deal but not the US.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian will travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly that begins Tuesday, foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh tells a news conference today.

He “will have separate and bilateral meetings” with the foreign ministers of China, France, Britain, Russia, and Germany, Khatibzadeh says.

A meeting with US officials is “not on the agenda,” he adds.

The nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers — Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the US — gave Iran sanctions relief in return for tight controls on its nuclear program, monitored by the UN.

Tehran has gradually rolled back its nuclear commitments since 2019, a year after then-US president Donald Trump withdrew from the multilateral deal and began reimposing sanctions.

Talks in Vienna that began in April have stalled since June.

In August, ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi became Iran’s new president taking over from moderate Hassan Rouhani, the principal architect on the Iranian side of the 2015 deal.

Khatibzadeh says that no decision has been made yet as to whether to hold a meeting bringing together all the countries still party to the nuclear deal.

It would depend on whether doing so would be “useful for the negotiations,” he adds.