Elon Musk met with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations the day earlier than he was appointed joint head of Donald Trump’s new cost-cutting division, the BBC’s US associate CBS has confirmed.
The assembly came about on the residence of Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani in New York, with the intention of discussing the right way to ease tensions between the 2 nations, based on the New York Times which first reported the information.
It is unclear whether or not President-elect Trump or his nationwide safety staff had been conscious of the assembly.
Many of Trump’s latest nationwide safety staff appointees, together with Mike Waltz and Marco Rubio, are identified Iran hawks who imagine the United States ought to take a troublesome stance in opposition to Iran.
The United States doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Tehran, however a personal assembly with Musk supplied a workaround, permitting Iran to keep away from a gathering with an American official, based on the New York Times.
The newspaper additionally mentioned that Musk requested the assembly with the ambassador and that the assembly was described by Iranian officers as “optimistic” and “excellent news.”
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung mentioned: “We don’t touch upon studies of whether or not or not non-public conferences have occurred.”
Iran’s mission to the United Nations and the White House declined a request for remark from CBS News.
During his first time period as president, Trump withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, brokered in 2015 throughout Barack Obama’s presidency, and reimposed robust financial sanctions that largely ban U.S. corporations from doing enterprise in Iran .
Trump additionally ordered the airstrike that killed Iranian army commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020.
The president-elect can be a powerful supporter of Israel, which has been at conflict with the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah teams because the Hamas assault on Israel on October 7 final yr.
The moss was recently appointed joint head of Donald Trump’s new Cost Reduction Department, which can advise on slicing authorities prices however is not going to be an official arm of presidency.
The tech billionaire and Tesla boss additionally joined Trump on a cellphone name with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and performed a key function in offering communications to the Ukrainian army through its Starlink satellite tv for pc web system.
