Putin, Rouhani not on Obama’s UN dance card

Neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will likely get face time with President Obama at next week’s meeting of the United Nations in New York, the White House said Monday.

During last year’s session, the White House said repeatedly that the president was willing to meet informally with Rouhani as the U.S. pushed Tehran to enter into negotiations over its nuclear weapons program. Rouhani rejected that face-to-face meeting, although the pair spoke later that month by phone in the first communication between the two countries’ leaders since 1979.

{mosads}Press secretary Josh Earnest said that following the phone call between the leaders, “the historical significance of a conversation this year would be somewhat different.”

Conceding that a face-to-face meeting would be “interesting,” Earnest said, nevertheless, “there’s no plans to do that” as American and Iranian negotiators continue to iron out details of a potential nuclear deal.

“The nature of our conversations with Iran right now is principally focused on resolving the nuclear issue,” Earnest said. “And there are senior-level administration officials that have been directed by this president to engage with their Iranian counterparts to try to resolve the international community’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.”

Similarly, Obama is not planning to save any time for Putin.

Last week, the administration announced a new round of sanctions targeting Moscow over its incursions into Ukraine. The U.S. has also been frustrated by the Kremlin’s support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, as well as the decision to grant asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

But shared concerns over Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorists may have provided a reason for the leaders to meet.

“Clearly, Russia, like much of the developed world, the civilized world, is rightly concerned about [ISIS]. They are concerned because of the destabilizing impact that this terrible group is having on the region,” Earnest said.

While the press secretary indicated that the U.S. would seek “a constructive way to work with the Russians” on the issue, those plans did not include a Putin-Obama meeting.

“It could be added to the schedule. But I don’t have anything like that to announce at this point,” Earnest said.