Iran's Foreign Ministry Reports on Zarif's Meeting with Several U.S. Congress Members

Hosseini Jaberi Ansari, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, announced without providing details that Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic, met with several members of the U.S. Congress during his trip to New York. The Iranian Foreign Minister traveled to New York in recent days to participate in the signing ceremony of the climate change agreement. In this context, according to IRNA news agency, Mr. Jaberi Ansari stated on Monday, April 25, in a conversation with reporters that Mohammad Javad Zarif met with some figures, including several members of the U.S. Congress, during this trip. The spokesman did not mention the names of the U.S. Congress members who met with Mr. Zarif. Since the severance of relations between the Islamic Republic and the United States in 1979, meetings between Iranian foreign ministers and U.S. Congress members have not been common or newsworthy. During Hassan Rouhani's administration, for the first time, Iranian and American foreign ministers met during nuclear negotiations, and in 2013, at the end of Hassan Rouhani's trip to New York for the UN General Assembly, the presidents of Iran and the United States spoke to each other for the first time over the phone. Meanwhile, a brief and unexpected handshake and conversation between the Iranian Foreign Minister and U.S. President Barack Obama last October led to protests from some conservatives. On the other hand, Michael Pompeo from Kansas, Lee Zeldin from New York, and Frank LoBiondo from New Jersey, three Republican representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives, reported last December that they had requested visas to travel to Tehran and visit nuclear sites and observe Iranian elections closely by attending the Iranian interests section office in Washington. The meeting of the Iranian Foreign Minister with U.S. Congress members comes at a time when Iranian officials have strongly protested the seizure of two billion dollars of Iran's assets in the U.S. In this regard, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that 'the political meaning of this action for the Iranian nation and government is that there is no will in the U.S. to end the long history of confrontation with the Iranian people.' Mr. Jaberi Ansari had previously protested the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling regarding the payment of two billion dollars in compensation from Iran's assets to the families of victims of 'attacks related to the Islamic Republic,' calling it 'theft of Iranian property' and 'mocking justice and law.' The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on April 20 to seize two billion dollars of Iran's frozen assets to compensate the families of American victims of the 1983 bombings and other 'Iran-related' attacks. The U.S. claims that Iran played a role in the 1983 bombing of a U.S. military base in Beirut. In this context, Kerry and Zarif met behind closed doors in New York. The Iranian Foreign Minister stated: 'Obama was right, and I was wrong.' Obama and Zarif 'shook hands.' Rouhani: 'The phone call was a small step; we will take bigger steps.' Rice: 'Rouhani asked Obama to call; Iran: it was unexpected.' Rouhani and Obama spoke on the phone. The changing battlefield of 'proxy wars'; the war against the people in the streets of Iran. The first paragraph; the responsibility of the opposition and the possibility of radicalizing Iranian society. The death of the last Mossad representative in Tehran amid the Iranian crisis.