WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump invited Iran’s foreign minister tothe White House last month at the height of tensions between the twocountries, a magazine reports.

The invitation, extended by Senator Rand Paul with permission from thepresident, was turned down for now, The New Yorker reported Friday. Theminister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said it was up to Tehran to decide onaccepting it.

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

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

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

Last year Trump pulled the US out of an international accord designed tocurb Iran’s nuclear program, and has reimposed sanctions on Iran — and evenslapped them on Zarif this week — in an effort to force it to renegotiatethe agreement.

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

At the one hour meeting with Rand, Zarif suggested ways to end the nuclearimpasse 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 saidit had downed an Iranian drone.

Trump has said the attack against the US drone prompted him to order amilitary strike in response, only to call it off at the last minute.-APP/AFP