Americans imprisoned in Iran a topic for Kerry, Iranian officials at U.N.
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Version 0 of 1. NEW YORK — Secretary of State John F. Kerry and the Iranian foreign minister on Saturday discussed steps each country is taking to implement the nuclear deal as Kerry again pressed for the release of three Americans imprisoned in Tehran. In a meeting with Mohammad Javad Zarif at the United Nations General Assembly underway in New York, Kerry “conveyed the urgency of seeing our detained and missing U.S. citizens come home to be reunited with their families,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said. Iranian officials recently have signaled a willingness to discuss a prisoner exchange for the three detained Americans. Among them is Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent who has been imprisoned for more than 14 months and is awaiting a verdict following the apparent conclusion of his secret trial on espionage and related charges. Saeed Abedini, a pastor from Idaho, and Amir Hekmati, a former Marine from Flint, Mich., are serving lengthy prison sentences. Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent, has been missing since he was last seen in Iran in 2007. “We always talk about American citizens with respect to their detainment in any part of the world,” Kerry said in brief remarks to reporters before sitting down with Zarif. “You can count on the fact we will have a discussion” on the Americans imprisoned in Iran. Iran claims that 19 Iranians are being held in U.S. prisons, largely on convictions for sanctions violations. Although Iranian President Hassan Rouhani shunned the word “exchange,” he told reporters Friday in an invitation-only meeting in New York that he could explore ways to “move the legal files forward” in Iran, aiming for a prisoner release in both countries. [Iranian president urges ‘quicker’ steps on possible mutual prisoner releases] Kerry’s meeting with Zarif, with whom he personally negotiated the Iran nuclear agreement finalized in July, was the first of more than three-dozen meetings he has scheduled with his foreign counterparts during the U.N. General Assembly in the coming week. Kerry has said the American prisoners were the last thing he mentioned to Zarif before they announced the nuclear deal. One of the most urgent topics for this and many of Kerry’s other meetings is the rapidly deteriorating situation in Syria. The administration is prepared to open a dialogue with Iran about the conflict that is sending an epic number of Syrian refugees into Europe and beyond. Kerry declined to be specific, saying there are a lot of issues to discuss of mutual interest to Iran and the United States. Iran and Russia are the two biggest supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and administration officials have been trying for months to get Tehran and Moscow to persuade Assad to step down. Kerry is scheduled to meet Sunday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a day before President Obama meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin.U.S. officials have professed to be stymied over Moscow’s intentions with respect to its military buildup in Syria. They have said they would welcome Moscow’s cooperating in fighting Islamic State militants in Syria but are unhappy that Russia may be propping up Assad. [A no-show for a decade, Russia’s Putin is heading to the U.N.] Kerry made clear that Syria, and the related crises tied to the conflict there, are the main focus of his talks during the General Assembly. “I view this week as a major opportunity for any number of countries to play an important role in trying to resolve some of the very difficult issues [of] the Middle East,” he said. “We need to achieve peace and a way forward in Syria, in Yemen, in the region itself. I think there are opportunities this week, through these discussions, to make some progress.” Zarif said his main focus in Saturday’s meeting was the full implementation of the nuclear deal. But he said he also expects at some point to talk about conditions that led to a stampede in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, that left more than 700 pilgrims dead this past week. “We hope that by its full implementation, its good faith implementation, we can [end] some of the mistrust that has existed over the past many decades,” he said. “So that is my priority. But the situation in the region, the unfortunate developments in Saudi Arabia over the last week, have been disastrous and we need to address them. We will address them in the proper international forum.” In a late-night meeting with Kerry, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir dismissed Iranian criticism that the kingdom’s “incompetence” had caused the stampede. Jubeir said Tehran was “playing politics with a tragedy.” A Saudi investigation into the incident, he said, “will reveal the facts when they emerge. And we will not hold anything back. If mistakes were made, who made them will be held accountable. And we will make sure that we will learn from this and we will make sure that it doesn’t happen again.” Kerry expressed condolences to those who lost people in the stampede, and said he was gratified Saudi Arabia was engaged in “accountability.” But, he added, “I think all of us are really focused on the loss of life and not on pointing fingers.” Read more: U.N. human rights experts call for ‘immediate release’ of Post’s Rezaian Read The Post’s petition to the United Nations The Post’s View: Jason Rezaian’s case proves Iran still can’t be trusted Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world |