Musk, Iran’s UN ambassador discuss de-escalation with US: Report
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is also a top adviser to the US President-elect Donald Trump, was reported to have discussed ways to ease tensions between Iran and the United States.
Musk met with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations on Monday in New York in a session that two Iranian officials described as a discussion on how to defuse tensions between Tehran and Washington, New York Times reported.
The Iranian officials said the meeting between Musk and Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani lasted more than an hour and was held at a secret location. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss policy publicly, described the meeting as “positive” and “good news.”
Asked about whether there was such a session, Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, said, “We do not comment on reports of private meetings that did or did not occur.” Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
Karoline Leavitt, the transition spokeswoman for the incoming Trump-Vance administration, said in a statement, “The American people re-elected President Trump because they trust him to lead our country and restore peace through strength around the world. When he returns to the White House, he will take the necessary action to do just that.”
Iran also seeks to ease tensions with the US with President Masoud Pezeshkian saying, “Whether we like it or not, we will eventually come face to face with this country in the regional and international arenas, and it is better to manage this issue ourselves.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also has called for the implementation of relevant management strategies to reduce the cost of Iran’s standing differences with the United States.
“We have to implement [relevant] management [strategies] so that the cost of Iran’s differences with the United States [can] be reduced,” the top diplomat said on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
He said the channels of communication between the two countries are constantly there.