UNITED NATIONS — Iran’s foreign minister invited the United States and other members of the U.N. Security Council to dinner Thursday night, his nation’s latest high-profile attempt to avert more economic sanctions over its nuclear program.
Western diplomats called it a rare move for a visiting dignitary such as Iranian Foreign Minister Manou chehr Mottaki to host a dinner for all the council’s 15 member nations, each of which was expected to send a representative. In most if not all cases, diplomats said, nations were sending a senior official, not the top- ranking ambassador, to the dinner.
But the occasion still serves as one of the highest-ranking contacts in recent years between the U.S. and Iran, which lack formal relations. Alejandro Wolff, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N., was to attend.
The dinner coincides with Thursday’s launch of a billboard campaign in New York by an advocacy group, United Against Nuclear Iran, arguing no venue in New York should host the Iranians. The Associated Press
