NEW YORK--U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met his Iranian
counterpart Javad Zarif on Sunday for talks on Iran's nuclear
program and the threat posed by Sunni extremist group Islamic
State, a senior State Department official said.
The discussions on Syria come as Washington and Tehran have both
insisted they won't cooperate militarily in the fight against
Islamic State in Iraq or Syria.
The U.S. is building an international coalition to fight Islamic
State but so far has excluded Iran from that group, although the
two countries have discussed events in Iraq a number of times in
recent weeks.
Mr. Zarif has slammed the U.S.-led group as "the coalition of
the repenters," saying many of the countries now pledging to fight
the Sunni extremists have been supplying or assisting them over the
past few years.
A State Department official said Mr. Kerry and Mr. Zarif met for
over an hour on Sunday, first one-on-one and then joined by other
senior diplomats.
"Separate and apart from the nuclear issue, they also discussed
the threat posed by ISIL," said the official, using the acronym for
one of Islamic State's former names. "Going forward, the Secretary
and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif agreed to meet further as needed
while in New York this week."
The official gave no further detail on the Islamic State
discussion.
On Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama will chair a UN
Security Council meeting on the threat posed by foreign fighters
who join the conflict in Iraq and Syria. Iran has intervened
militarily in Syria to support the Assad regime but Iranian
officials say Tehran has sent only advisers and assistance to help
Iraqi and Kurdish forces fight Islamic State.
Mr. Kerry and Mr. Zarif also discussed the latest development in
the talks on Iran's nuclear program. Iran and six powers including
the U.S. are seeking to reach a final agreement by Nov. 24 setting
limits on Tehran's future nuclear activities in exchange for a
gradual lifting of sanctions.
The full nuclear talks resumed after a two month gap on Friday,
although senior U.S. and Iranian diplomats met earlier in the week
for talks. A senior U.S. official said on Thursday they came to New
York "not very optimistic" about the outlook for the decade-long
diplomacy.
The official pressed Iran to show flexibility in the coming days
when the Iranian and U.S. presidents will be in New York for the
annual U.N. General Assembly meeting, calling this "a unique
opportunity" for progress.
Diplomats on both sides have said there are still major gaps
between Iran and the six powers on several key issues, including
the cap on Tehran's future nuclear enrichment program.
At Sunday's meeting the two foreign ministers "discussed both
the progress that has been made and the work that still needs to be
done," the State Department official said.
"Secretary Kerry noted that this week is an opportunity to make
additional progress and stressed that it is our intention to do
so."
On Thursday, the senior U.S. official said that over the summer,
the six power group had offered "creative solutions" on key issues
like enrichment but that Iran hadn't been immediately responsive.
However western diplomats have said this week's talks had been more
constructive.
Speaking in New York on Wednesday evening, Iran's Foreign
Minister Javad Zarif said his side was "committed to resolving this
issue." But Mr. Zarif said Iranian trust in U.S. intentions
remained low.
Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for purely peaceful
civilian purposes, negotiates with the U.S., U.K., France, Germany,
China and Russia, the so-called P5+1 Group.
Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires