Rouhani directs study of direct flights from Iran to U.S.

TEHRAN, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called for a study into establishing direct flights between Iran and the United States, a government minister said Monday.

"The president issued an order to study how it would be possible to establish direct flights between Iran and the United States of America in order to resolve the transportation problems of the [Iranian] compatriots residing in the U.S.," Akbar Torkan, the Supreme Council's caretaker minister for expatriates' affairs, said in a report from the Tasnim News Agency.

The president also stressed the need for providing more services for Iranian expatriates worldwide, Torkan said.

Rouhani spoke at a meeting of Iranian expatriates in New York Friday, the last day of his five-day trip to attend the U.N. General Assembly.

Rouhani and U.S. President Obama talked by phone Friday on several issues. It was the first such high-level contact between the two countries in more than three decades.

The U.S. Census indicated about 414,000 Iranians live in the country, mainly in California.