Trump invited Iran FM to White House: Report

US President Donald Trump invited Iran’s foreign minister (FM) to the White House last month at the height of tensions between the two countries, a magazine reports.

The invitation, extended by Senator Rand Paul with permission from the president, was turned down for now, The New Yorker reported on Friday. The minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said it was up to Tehran to decide on accepting it.

Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to AFP requests for comment on the report, which quoted US and Iranian sources and what the magazine called a well-placed diplomat.

Zarif told the magazine he would not want a White House meeting that yielded just a photo op and a two page statement afterwards, The New Yorker said.

Trump has said publicly several times that he is willing to hold talks with the Iranians even as he lambasts Tehran as a corrupt, incompetent and dangerous regime that is a threat to regional security and US interests.

Last year Trump pulled the US out of an international accord designed to curb Iran’s nuclear programme, and has reimposed sanctions on Iran — and even slapped them on Zarif this week — in an effort to force it to renegotiate the agreement.

Rand had been working for weeks on setting up a meeting with Zarif and on July 15, conferred with him in New York, passing on an invitation from Trump for him to come to the White House, the magazine said.

At the one hour meeting with Rand, Zarif suggested ways to end the nuclear impasse and address Trump’s concerns, The New Yorker said.

Tensions soared in the Gulf in June and July amid attacks on oil tankers, Iran’s downing of an unmanned US surveillance drone and after the US said it had downed an Iranian drone.

Trump has said the attack against the US drone prompted him to order a military strike in response, only to call it off at the last minute.

Iran will take another step to reduce its compliance with a landmark 2015 nuclear deal, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday without elaborating, according to parliamentary news agency ICANA.

Iran has repeatedly said it will reduce its commitment to the nuclear accord in stages and may even withdrew from the pact altogether unless the remaining signatories find ways to shield its economy from US sanctions. Washington pulled out of the deal last year.

“The third step in reducing commitments to (the nuclear deal) will be implemented in the current situation,” he said.

“We have said that if (the deal) is not completely implemented by others then we will also implement it in the same incomplete manner. And of course all of our actions have been within the framework of (the deal).” Last month, Iran threatened to restart deactivated centrifuges and ramp up enrichment of uranium to 20% purity in a move away from the nuclear deal.

Iranian officials have said that all of Tehran’s moves in reducing its commitments to the nuclear deal are reversible as long as the remaining signatories uphold their commitments.

Fears of a Middle East war with global repercussions have risen since US President Donald Trump withdrew last year from the 2015 deal and revived a panoply of sanctions meant to push Tehran into wider security concessions.

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Zarif himself, blocking any property or interests he has in the United States, although Zarif said he had none.

He added at a charity event on Friday night that he is proud to be sanctioned by America for defending the rights of Iranian people, the IRIB news agency reported.

Separately, an Iranian serving a life sentence on a conviction of designing a pornographic website has fled the country while on short-term release from prison, the judiciary said on Saturday.

“This individual was barred from leaving the country and has apparently left... via unofficial channels and has not returned,” said judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili.

The spokesman was responding on state television to reports that Saeed Malekpour had left the country.

“This individual was sentenced to life in jail and had served more than 11 years of his sentence,” Esmaili said, quoted by the judiciary’s official news agency, Mizan Online.

Agencies