President Hassan Rouhani rebuffed a request from US President Donald Trump to meet at the United Nations in New York in September, a day after Trump made a speech highly critical of Iran. “A request, indeed, was made by the US side, but it wasn’t accepted by President Rouhani,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said on Sunday, Bloomberg reported citing Fars News Agency. Qasemi, though, denied earlier reports that French President Emmanuel Macron was prepared to mediate a meeting between the two leaders. In his blistering speech to the UN on Sept. 19, Trump leveled spurious allegations against the Islamic Republic on its regional activities and domestic issues. Since then, Trump has disavowed the 2015 nuclear agreement, which he claimed Iran had violated, and asked the US Congress to consider tough new sanctions on Tehran. But he stopped short of unraveling the multinational accord. Rouhani said on Sunday Tehran will continue to comply with the nuclear deal and will not be the first to leave it.
