Zarif to Brief Parliament on Meeting with Kerry on Sunday


TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran's foreign minister has been asked to brief members of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission on details of his new York meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Mohammad Javad Zarif is expected to give details of his Thursday meeting with the US secretary of state, held on the sidelines of a larger negotiating session about Iran’s nuclear program, to members of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission this Sunday, Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Saleh Jokar told Tasnim on Wednesday.

Zarif and Kerry met in New York as part of a meeting between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, known as the Group 5+1 or the P5+1, to explore the idea of restarting talks on Iran's nuclear program. The session was hosted by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Jokar, himself a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, further noted that other topics of discussion at the commission would be some of the details of President Hassan Rouhani’s US visit.

The meeting in New York, attended by seven foreign ministers, marked the highest-level, direct contact between the US and Iran in many years as the US secretary of state, John Kerry, came face-to-face with the Iranian foreign minister.

After the meeting, Zarif said he had "very good and constructive" talks with foreign ministers of the six world powers.

“I’m satisfied with this first step, now we have to see whether we can match our positive words with serious deeds, so that we can move forward,” the Iranian minister said in a press conference after the talks.