Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in New York where he is expected to speak at the United Nations General Assembly, Iranian state media reported on Wednesday.
State broadcaster IRIB posted a video clip of Pezeshkian exiting a plane with a caption saying that the Iranian president has arrived at a New York airport. This is the first time that a leader whose country is at war with the United States sets foot on American soil to address a UN gathering, analysts say.
Earlier, AFP reported Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met US envoy Steve Witkoff on the sidelines of the UN General assembly in New York on Tuesday and informed him of Tehran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian media reported.
According to the state news agency IRIB, Araghchi told Witkoff that Tehran demands included “the immediate lifting of the (US) naval blockade, the prompt payment of all Iranian assets that have been frozen, and an end to the war on all resistance fronts”.
Read more: Iran ready to reopen Strait of Hormuz if US eases military pressure and lifts blockade
Iranian officials held three hours of talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. He said there would a further meeting in the very near future.
Witkoff said he felt very good about the meeting, the first such contact since the US vice-president, JD Vance, met an Iranian delegation to agree to a memorandum of understanding in Switzerland in June.
Iranian officials confirmed the meeting with Witkoff involved its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and was mediated by diplomats from Qatar.
A senior Iranian official also indicated that the country was prepared to reopen the strait of Hormuz within a week, as long as the US took reciprocal steps to ease the military and economic pressure it is applying on Iran.
