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Iran's Zarif plans North Korea visit - Iranian state TV

April 28, 2019 at 2:13 pm

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif makes a speech during ‘Iran – Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) common commercial conference’ in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq on January 15, 2019 [Feriq Fereç / Anadolu Agency]

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is planning to visit North Korea, Iran’s state television reported on Sunday, without giving the date of the visit.

“The date of this trip will be set and announced soon,” the television quoted Zarif as saying, in a Reuters report. It gave no further details.

North Korea’s top diplomat, Ri Yong Ho, whose country faces international and US sanctions, visited Iran in August as the United States reintroduced sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif does not believe US President Donald Trump wants war with Iran, but he told Reuters on Wednesday that Trump could be lured into a conflict.

“I don’t think he wants war,” Zarif said in an interview at the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York. “But that doesn’t exclude him being basically lured into one.”

Zarif said a so-called “B-team,” including Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton, an ardent Iran hawk, and conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could goad Trump into conflict with Tehran.