NEW YORK, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with his Iranian counterpart during this week's U.N. general assembly, officials said.
It would be the highest level meeting between the two countries since the 1979 Iranian revolution, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Though the State Department said there are no planned face-to-face meetings between U.S. President Barack Obama and newly installed Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, a moderate who has said he hopes to resolve tensions over his nation's highly controversial nuclear enrichment program, White House officials said they had not ruled out a brief in-person exchange between the two leaders.
Obama arrived at the meeting of world leaders Monday.
Included in the foreign minister meeting are representatives of four other Western nations who have for years tried unsuccessfully to negotiate an end to Iran's nuclear program. The Iranians have steadfastly denied their program is meant to build a nuclear weapon, saying it is for domestic energy production. The Western allies say otherwise.
Other topics at the meeting will be resolving the Syrian civil war and gaining Iran's assistance in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the Journal said.
