Iran’s Supreme Leader Meets President As He Is Set To Leave For US

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei met with Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday, a day before the president is set to leave for the United States.

Khamenei wished success for Raisi on his forthcoming visit to New York to attend the 77th United Nations General Assembly.

Raisi also presented a report on the meetings and agreements he made during his recent visit to Uzbekistan for the 2022 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, over which Khamenei also expressed content.

While the Biden administration is under mounting pressure to deny visa for the Iranian president, Raisi said he has no plans for either meeting or talking with his American counterpart Joe Biden, during his upcoming trip to New York.

"I do not think that such a meeting is going to take place," Raeisi told CBS News' 60 Minutes program during an interview conducted Tuesday, which the channel is going to broadcast in full on Sunday. When asked "Are you open to a meeting with President Biden? A face-to-face?" Raisi said, "I don't believe having a meeting or a talk with him will be beneficial."

"The new administration in the US, they claim that they are different from the Trump administration," he said, adding, "They have said it in their messages to us. But we haven't witnessed any changes in reality."

The US Senate is also preparing a bill to bar all officials tied to the Supreme Leader, and the proposed bill is likely to attract bipartisan support. A bipartisan group of 52 US representatives wrote a letter to the White House earlier this month calling on President Joe Biden to deny "entry visas" for Raisi and his delegation.