UNITED NATIONS — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that President Trump is open to meeting with his Iranian counterpart this week during the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York.
Mr. Rubio stressed, however, that Mr. Trump is not scheduled to meet with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and that the U.S. would not budge from his demand that Tehran never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons.
“We’re open to [meeting]. I don’t think anything is scheduled at this point, but we’re certainly open to something like that, especially if it has the prospects of leading to something positive and ultimately achieving the goal of what this is all about, and that is the fact that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. They just simply can’t,” Mr. Rubio told NBC News.
Mr. Trump will give the second speech during the General Assembly’s General Debate section on Tuesday, following Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Mr. Trump is also expected to sign a trilateral agreement with Greenland and Denmark on U.S. involvement in the security of the Arctic island nation.
Mr. Trump has scheduled bilateral meetings with the British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
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