Iran says Zarif, Obama meeting occurs unplanned

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - An Iranian source said that the short meeting between the U.S. President Barack Obama and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif that occurred on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly was unplanned.

"Quotes saying the meeting was predetermined are completely false," the source said, Iran 's official IRNA news agency reported Sept. 29.

Obama and Zarif shook hands on the sidelines of the 70th United Nations General Assembly yesterday night, a first handshake between a US president and a senior Iranian official since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

There were earlier some speculations about possible meeting of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and his US counterpart on the sidelines of the assembly, however it did not happened.

It should be noted that Rouhani and Obama spoke by phone in September 2013 on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly. The phone conversation was the first direct communication in decades between the heads of state of the two countries. Iranian conservatives severely criticized Rouhani on the issue, Kazinform refers to Trend.az.