Kerry: 1-on-1 nuclear talks with Iranian FM Zarif constructive

Top diplomats from the United State and Iran met for the first time in more than 30 years and explored the idea of restarting talks on Iran's nuclear program. "We had a constructive meeting, and I think all of us were pleased that Foreign Minister [Javid] Zarif came and made a presentation to us, which was very different in tone and very different in the vision that he held out with respect to possibilities of the future," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said of his one-on-one meeting Thursday with the Iranian at United Nations headquarters in New York. "Needless to say, one meeting and a change in tone, which was welcome, doesn't answer those questions yet, and there's a lot of work to be done," Kerry said. "So we will engage in that work, obviously, and we hope very, very much -- all of us -- that we can get concrete results that will answer the outstanding questions regarding the program." Kerry said he and Zarif discussed the possibility of how to proceed based on President Obama's speech to the U.N. General Assembly earlier this week concerning Iran's controversial nuclear program. Western nations fear it is to advance the Islamic republic's nuclear weapons capabilities but Iranian officials say it is for civilian purposes. Zarif "put some possibilities" on the table during their discussion, Kerry said. "Now it's up to people to do the hard work of trying to fill out what those possibilities could do," he said. Zarif also called the meeting "constructive," CNN reported. "We hope to be able to make progress towards resolving this issue in a timely fashion based on respecting the rights of the Iranian people to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment. And, at the same time, making sure that there is no concern at the international level that Iran's nuclear program is anything but peaceful," Zarif told reporters after the meeting. Zarif gave a 15-to 20-minute presentation to a group of diplomats Thursday, laying out Iran's interests and desire to strike an agreement with other nations that would be fully implemented within a year, a senior State Department official told CNN. The Kerry-Zarif session was the first high-level bilateral meeting between the United States and Iran since New Year's Eve in 1977 when President Jimmy Carter met the shah of Iran. "We stressed the need to continue these discussions to give it the political impetus that it requires, and hopefully to reach a conclusion in a reasonable time," Zarif said. "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." Both sides agreed to have more detailed discussions in October in Geneva, Switzerland. Kerry met Zarif met first in the U.N. Security Council's consultation chamber along with by foreign ministers from Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, The Wall Street Journal reported. Then, Kerry and Zarif met alone. The election of new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, widely considered more moderate than his predecessor, seems to have opened the possibility of a thaw in U.S.-Iran relations, which had been frozen since Iran's 1979 revolution and the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, in which 52 embassy workers were held captive for 444 days. On Thursday, Rouhani called for an end to nuclear weapons, saying disarmament "remains our highest priority." "As long as nuclear weapons exist, the risk of their use, threat of use and proliferation persist," Rouhani told the U.N. General Assembly on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement. "The only absolute guarantee is their total elimination." During his speech before the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday, Obama said curbing Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be his highest foreign policy priorities for the remainder of his term.