Trump Asked 8 Times to Meet Rouhani in NY, Iranian Official Says
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – During a visit to New York for a United Nations General Assembly meeting in September 2017, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani received eight requests from his US counterpart Donald Trump for a meeting, the Iranian president's chief of staff said.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet session on Wednesday, Mahmoud Vaezi said Trump had asked the Iranian team eight times to hold talks with Rouhani in his previous trip to the US to attend the UN General Assembly.
In September 2013, Rouhani and ex-US president Barack Obama talked over the phone as the Iranian official was on his way to leave New York City after the 68th annual session of the UN General Assembly.
It was the highest-level contact between the two countries in more than three decades.
On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said if the US wants to make a deal with Iran, Trump will have to pick up the phone.
The remark came a week after Trump said, “At a certain point they (Iranian officials) are going to call me and say ‘let’s make a deal,’ and we’ll make a deal.”
