UN, (timid) evidence of dialogue between Iran and the US. Rouhani flies to Tokyo

Overnight in New York, Iranian ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi held a brief interview with Kelly Craft. The US diplomat saddened by the death of a two-year-old girl due to the lack of medicine. A problem linked to US sanctions on the ayatollahs' nuclear power.

New York (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Last night at the United Nations in New York there was the first - timid - attempt at "direct contact" between Tehran and Washington. The protagonists are the US ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft and the Iranian counterpart Majid Takht Ravanchi, in a context that remains however of great tension between the two countries.

The close encounter between the parties took place in the hall hosting the Security Council, on the sidelines of a meeting of the 15 dedicated to respecting the nuclear agreement (Jcpoa) ​​signed in 2015 by Tehran and five other world powers.

During the session, Tehran's head of diplomacy at the UN spoke of a two-year-old girl who died in June of a rare disease. Behind the death there is the chronic lack of medicines in the Islamic Republic, whose importation has collapsed due to the growing American sanctions.

At the end of the meeting the US diplomat approached the Iranian counterpart for a brief interview. According to an official US source,  Craft wanted to express her condolences to Ravanchi for the death of the child. Earlier, the Iranian ambassador had attacked the "US bullying" that led to the "suspension" in the supply of "certain types of medicines" in the Islamic Republic, which is "becoming a source of nightmare for some patients."

Behind the crisis in the supply of medicines - and other basic necessities - already denounced in the past, the decision by US President Donald Trump in May last year to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear agreement (JCPOA). This heightened US-Iran tensions, triggering a serious economic crisis in the Mideast country.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrives in Tokyo today, for a two-day diplomatic visit to Japan where he will meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Iranian nuclear program and growing tensions with the US administration are at the center of talks. Japan has friendly relations with both Tehran and Washington and has tried in the past to defuse tensions between the two nations.