Barack Obama Won’t Meet Iran’s Hassan Rouhani
Image by getty images
A potential encounter at the United Nations between U.S. President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani failed to take place on Tuesday as the Iranians indicated it was too complicated, senior Obama administration officials said.
“There will be no meeting,” one official said.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters that Obama had been open to a meeting with Rouhani while both were in New York for U.N. activities but the Iranians were not ready to have an encounter at the presidential level.
There had been encouraging signs that the U.S. and Iranian presidents would have the highest level contact since before Iran’s 1979 revolution. Both presidents have talked about a diplomatic opening to try to settle Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Officials stressed that any encounter between the two men would not have involved negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at developing a nuclear weapon.
Diplomacy will now go forward between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, the officials said.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
