Iranian foreign minister to travel to New York

TEHRAN — Iran's new foreign minister leaves on Monday on his first official trip to the United States where he will meet counterparts from countries party to the 2015 nuclear deal but not the US.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian will travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly that begins on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told a news conference on Sunday.

He "will have separate and bilateral meetings" with the foreign ministers of China, France, Britain, Russia and Germany, Khatibzadeh said.

A meeting with US officials is "not on the agenda", he added.

The nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers — Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the US — gave Iran sanctions relief in return for tight controls on its nuclear programme, monitored by the UN.

Tehran has gradually rolled back its nuclear commitments since 2019, a year after then US president Donald Trump withdrew from the multilateral deal and began reimposing sanctions.

Talks in Vienna that began in April have stalled since June.

In August, ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi became Iran’s new president taking over from moderate Hassan Rouhani, the principal architect on the Iranian side of the 2015 deal.

Khatibzadeh said that no decision has been taken yet on whether to hold a meeting bringing together all the countries still party to the nuclear deal.

It would depend on whether or not doing so was “useful for the negotiations”, he added.

The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog last week hailed a deal struck with Iran over access to surveillance equipment at Iranian nuclear facilities, saying it allowed space for diplomatic talks.