San Francisco Chronicle

Nation rules out meeting with U.S. at U.N. event

- By Megan Specia Megan Specia is a New York Times writer.

Iran has dismissed the possibilit­y of a meeting between the country’s president, Hassan Rouhani, and President Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly next week, the country’s staterun news media reported Monday.

“Neither is such a plan on our agenda nor will such a thing happen,” Seyed Abbas Mousavi, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said at a news conference, according to Fars, a staterun outlet. “This meeting will not be held.”

Mousavi added that if the United States “stops economic terrorism and returns to the nuclear deal, then they may sit at a corner and be present within the framework of the nuclear deal member states.”

His comments come after an attack on two major oil installati­ons in Saudi Arabia on Saturday further escalated tensions between Iran and the United States. The Houthi rebels in Yemen, who receive support from Iran, claimed responsibi­lity for the strikes, but the Trump administra­tion has accused Tehran of being behind the attack.

On Sunday, U.S. officials cited intelligen­ce assessment­s to support the accusation, and Trump warned that he was prepared to take military action.

Earlier, the White House had said that it was not ruling out the possibilit­y of a meeting between Trump and Rouhani on the sidelines of the U.N. summit. But the events of the weekend have jeopardize­d any potential for discussion.

The relationsh­ip between the two nations has devolved since last year, when Trump abruptly withdrew the United States from the 2015 deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program and reimposed punishing economic sanctions.

Last week, Trump said that he was open to the idea of meeting with Rouhani on the sidelines of the summit.

But on Sunday, he walked back those statements, saying on Twitter that reports that he was willing to meet with Iran with no conditions were “incorrect.”

Trump has refrained so far from directly accusing Iran of the attacks on the Saudi oil facilities, but other administra­tion officials have not.

Shortly after the attacks Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of being behind what he called “an unpreceden­ted attack on the world’s energy supply” and asserted that there was “no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.” He did not, however, specify an alternativ­e launch site.

Iran has forcefully rejected Pompeo’s accusation, with the foreign minister dismissing it as “max deceit.”

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