Obama, Rouhani Meeting ‘Too Complicated’ for Iran
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File photo. (BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)(UNITED NATIONS) — President Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani won’t have a historic meeting, or any other informal encounter, during the annual United Nations session after all, two senior administration officials said Tuesday.
The sources, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said that a meeting proved “too complicated for Iranians to do at this point.” They did not explain what the complications were.
The White House had signaled for days that an informal meeting — even a handshake — between the leaders was possible. Aides on Tuesday confirmed that the administration had conveyed to the Iranians at the staff level about their openness to meet.
But after repeated overtures, “there will be no meeting,” one official said. “It was clear that it was too complicated for them.”
The officials reiterated that a formal bilateral meeting or negotiation between Obama and Rouhani was never on the table.
Still, the Obama administration signaled Tuesday that it wants to move forward with a new round of diplomacy with Iran, affirming a meeting Thursday in New York between Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zafir.
The men will attend a previously scheduled meeting of the P5+1, which is seeking to negotiate a resolution of Iran’s contested nuclear program. It will mark the highest-level encounter between U.S. and Iranian leaders on the nuclear issue in three decades.
Earlier Tuesday, Rouhani was a no-show at a U.N. luncheon for world leaders when he would have shared the room with Obama. Iranian state media said Rouhani skipped the event because alcohol was being served. He later met one-on-one with French President Francois Hollande.
Despite the high expectations of a meeting, there were signs from Iran as the day got underway that a presidential meeting might not materialize.
“The assumption that a meeting (between Iranian and American officials) per se could be decisive or help solve problems is absolutely wrong,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Marzieh Afkham at a press conference.
“We think that we should wait until a proper time for such a meeting comes,” she said. “Our assessment is that the proper time hasn’t yet come.”
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