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Tech billionaire Elon Musk met with Iran's UN ambassador and discussed ways to defuse tensions between Iran and the United States, the New York Times reported on Friday.
The meeting between Musk and Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani held in a secret location in New York and lasted over an hour was described by two Iranian officials as "positive" and focused on reducing tensions between the two countries, the publication noted. Trump who appointed Musk, the owner of Tesla and X as the co-director of a new government efficiency agency during a call last week with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, handed the phone to the tech billionaire, said New York Times. Musk has played a key role in providing communications capability to Ukraine in the war with Russia. During his first term, Trump pulled the United States out of the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers, calling it "a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made," and imposed tough economic sanctions on Iranian oil revenues and international banking transactions. He also ordered the assassination of a top Iranian general, Qassim Suleimani, in Iraq in 2020. In response, Iran's supreme leader banned any negotiations with the Trump administration and Iranian officials vowed to avenge. Suleimani's killing. Federal prosecutors said in a court filing last week that Iran had plotted to assassinate Trump before the election. Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a meeting with the visiting Director General of the IAEA Rafael Grossi in Tehran on Thursday said that Iran is well-prepared to collaborate with international bodies to address any questions regarding its peaceful nuclear program. A report by Iranian state media Irna reported that Pezeshkian underlined that the reports from the IAEA indicate that Iran has met all its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, but the US unilaterally withdrew from it. The NYT report stated citing an anonymous Iranian official, that in his meeting with Musk, ambassador Iravani told the tech billionaire he should obtain sanctions exemptions from the Treasury and bring some of his businesses to Tehran. Iran's mission to the United Nations said it would not publicly comment on the meeting, the publication said. (ANI)
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