Iran “categorically” denied on Saturday any meeting between its ambassador to the UN and American businessman Elon Musk, and expressed its “surprise” at the media coverage of the matter, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, quoted by the agency. IRNA official.
The New York Times reported that Musk, a close ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, met with Iran’s ambassador to the UN on Monday to “defuse tensions” between Tehran and his country, although he had not been officially confirmed by neither party. This supposed rapprochement between Iran and the United States, with that alleged meeting, has unleashed a great controversy in the Persian country, with reactions both against and in favor. Iranian newspapers, printed before Tehran’s denial, were divided on the issue on Saturday and urged not to “exaggerate” its importance.
The harshest criticism came from the ultraconservative newspaper Keyhan, close to the Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. In a column by its editor-in-chief Hosein Shariatmadari and titled ‘Secret meeting with Trump’s representative, naivety or betrayal!?’, the media attacked the now denied meeting. «In a situation in which the United States is the debtor party to the nuclear agreement and must pay damages to Iran for violating the pact, the demanders of reforms and the internal column of the West’s campaign against Iran (the reformists) strive for paving the way for negotiations with this terrorist regime,” denounced the Iranian newspaper.
Reformist journalist and political activist Ahmad Zaidabadi counterattacked Keyhan, indicating that it is very natural for the ultra-conservative newspaper to criticize the rapprochement with Washington, since it has occurred under the presidency of the moderate Masud Pezeshkian. “If the same thing had happened during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or the late Ebrahim Raisi, Kayhan would have presented it as a diplomatic masterpiece or an unprecedented victory,” Zeidabadi said on his Telegram channel.
The newspaper ‘Jomhourie Eslami’ (Islamic Republic), close to the reformists, for its part welcomed the talks with Washington. “They can be considered as the beginning of a new path in the foreign policy of our country,” reads an article in the newspaper, which emphasized that the Iranian Government has given signs that it wants to lower tensions with the United States. “There is no doubt that diplomacy is stronger and more effective than any other weapon if it is calculated, intelligent and planned,” the text stated.
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