Obama’s Handshake with Zarif Completely Unplanned: Source
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A handshake between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US President Barack Obama at the UN General Assembly hall occurred in an impromptu encounter, a source close to the Iranian delegation said on Tuesday.
The source quashed rumors that Zarif and Obama met under a planned schedule.
“Following President Rouhani’s address to the 70th session of the UN General Assembly yesterday (Monday), Foreign Minister Zarif was getting out of the General Assembly hall that encountered US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry quite by chance. They exchanged greetings and shook hands,” the source explained.
Following the event, some Western media outlets tried to describe the historic handshake as a hopeful sign of a thaw in relations between Tehran and Washington.
It happened after Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14 reached a conclusion on a lasting nuclear agreement that would terminate all sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear energy program after coming into force.
While many consider the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) a major breakthrough in the improvement of ties between Iran and the West, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has already made it clear that Tehran’s policy toward the US will remain unchanged regardless of the ultimate fate of the JCPOA.