Iran denies holding meeting with US in Iraq

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh in Tehran, Iran on October 5, 2020 [Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency]

Iran did not hold a meeting with American officials in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the spokesperson of the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

Saeed Khatibzadeh was quoted by the Tasnim News Agency as saying that the recent reports about an Iranian delegation meeting with the director of the US’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, were “groundless”.

He added that Burns was in Baghdad “a few days ago,” stressing that he had left before the Iranian delegation arrived in the Iraqi capital.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and a number of officials arrived in Baghdad on a visit to discuss mutual relations with Iraq.

Talks are being held in the Austrian capital Vienna to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal which became defunct after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018 and re-imposed “unprecedented sanctions” on the Islamic Republic.

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