TEHRAN, Iran — On Sept. 28, an unprecedented event in the history of relations between post-revolutionary Iran and the United States took place: Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif shook hands with President Barack Obama. Any such personal encounter or even the talk of an encounter is a highly sensitive issue in Tehran. Indeed, the Obama-Zarif handshake has led to severe criticism in Iran, with some hard-liners going as far as outright insulting their country’s foreign minister.
Even as hard-liners demand that Zarif apologize to the nation for crossing what they refer to as red lines, with some even calling for the foreign minister’s impeachment for greeting Obama, several members of the Iranian delegation who visited New York for the UN General Assembly insist that the handshake wasn’t a pre-planned event.
