Iran FM handshake with United States president Obama not scheduled

President Barack Obama and Iran’s foreign minister shook hands when they ran into one another on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

But the handshake breaks new ground: the first between a US president and Iran’s foreign minister since the 1979 Islamic revolution and the hostage-taking at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran that followed.

The remarks came after Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency and worldwide media outlets documented the impromptu encounter in New York on Monday.

An unidentified White House official confirmed this, saying “there was a brief interaction at the luncheon, where they shook hands”.

Haghighatpour is a member of a special committee established by parliament to review the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers led by the US. The exchange of pleasantries was described as the first time in 30 years a U.S. president extended his hand to a high-ranking Iranian official. One lawmaker called the handshake “disgusting and unacceptable”, and demanded that Zarif apologize to the Iranian nation.

Obama spoke on the phone with Rouhani after his election in 2013.

The comprehensive nuclear deal, reached on July 14 in Vienna, would terminate all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran after coming into force.

Zarif regularly meets with Western officials and has repeatedly shaken hands with US Secretary of State John Kerry, his counterpart during nuclear negotiations.

Earlier, Rouhani vowed to work for the release of three Americans imprisoned in Iran – including Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian – if the United States takes steps to free Iranians held in American custody.