Iran’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that the country’s president declined a meeting with President Trump in September, according to The Associated Press.
Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi made the comment to Iranian news agency ILNA, and it was then reported by the AP.
Ghasemi told ILNA that U.S. officials had floated a possible meeting between the two leaders while they were in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
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Ghasemi said of the proposed meeting that “an intention was expressed by the American side that was not approved by President Rouhani,” according to the AP.
The White House later on Sunday told The Hill that the Iranian official’s account “is false.”
Trump’s predecessor, President Obama, spoke with Rouhani by telephone in 2013, the last communication of its kind to date between Tehran and Washington.
Tensions between the two countries have spiked since Trump took office in January. Shortly before the U.S. president gave his first address at the U.N. General Assembly, Rouhani warned that the U.S. would pay “a high cost” if it decided to withdraw from the nuclear agreement formulated under Obama.
In October, Rouhani slammed Trump for his decision not to recertify the deal, saying it made the U.S. more isolated than ever before.