Iranian FM not to visit Washington

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is still in New York to hold several meetings with Iranian and American elites and scholars after his participation in the UN General Assembly meeting, does not plan to visit Washington, a source announced on Tuesday. "Such a trip is not on Zarif's agenda," an informed source close to the delegation accompanying the Iranian top diplomat told FNA today. The source said that Zarif who accompanied Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during his New York visit and his meetings with the officials of different countries on the sidelines of the 68th UN General Assembly session is due to hold more meetings and address Iranian and American elites and scholars in New York and has no time to travel to Washington due to his busy schedule. "Therefore, despite abundant demands, including invitations from Michigan, Harvard and Princeton Universities and Washington's think tanks, he cannot given a positive response to their demands (to travel to Washington) due to his tight schedule," the source said. Last week in New York, Zarif held meetings with his counterparts from different states, including US Secretary of State John Kerry. Diplomats from the major countries described the atmosphere of the wider talks in positive terms, but they, as well as the US and Iranian foreign ministers, stressed the difficulty of resolving a dispute that has eluded solution for a decade, Reuters reported. "We had a very constructive meeting," Kerry told reporters after the talks at the United Nations, where he and Zarif had sat next to one another in a gesture that suggested a desire by both sides to explore how to ease their more than three-decade estrangement. But Kerry added, "Needless to say, one meeting and a change in tone, which was welcome, doesn't answer those questions yet and there is a lot of work to be done." The United States wants Iran to address questions about its nuclear program, which Washington and its allies suspect is a cover for developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies that, saying its program is for solely peaceful, civilian uses. Zarif also sounded a cautionary note and insisted on quick relief from the painful US, European Union and UN sanctions imposed for Iran's refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment program, a right enshrined in the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) for all signatories. "I am satisfied with this first step. Now we have to see whether we can match our positive words with serious deeds so we can move forward," he told reporters. "Of course as we move forward, there has to be removal of sanctions and in the end game there has to be a total lifting of all sanctions and both bilateral sanctions, unilateral sanctions as well as multilateral sanctions and UN sanctions and we hope to be able to move in that direction within a short span of time." Kerry said Zarif had put some "possibilities" on the table, but stressed there was more work to be done.