Rouhani's meeting with Cameron draws criticism in Iran

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is being criticized for meeting with UK Prime Minister David Cameron after the latter made critical comments about Iran during his UN General Assembly speech. Cameron and Rouhani's meeting was the first time for the heads of state of the two countries to meet since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

The meeting was hailed as a “historic meeting” by Reformist newspapers. However, during his address later that day Cameron said “severe disagreements” still remained between the two countries, such as Iran’s “support for terrorist organizations,” their nuclear program and the “treatment of its people.” Cameron, however, did leave hope for cooperation on regional issues and said, “Iran should also be given the chance to show it can be part of the solution, not part of the problem.”

A member of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Ismail Kowsari, said both Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif have to explain what “benefits” the meetings with Cameron had, given that “some hours after the meeting David Cameron condemned Iran for supporting terrorism from the podium of the United Nations.” 

Kowsari said, “We expect our officials to be more vigilant and not become imprisoned by these media games.” He asked, “What is the logic behind these meetings?” He suggested that Zarif should be called to parliament to answer for these meetings and said that Rouhani and Zarif were behaving “in a rogue manner,” given that “the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] has said that he is not hopeful about these [nuclear] negotiations.”