Iranian state media reported on January 25 that parliament has summoned Foreign Minister Javid Zarif to appear and explain his recent stroll with U.S. counterpart John Kerry during nuclear negotiations in Geneva.

Zarif, who leads Tehran’s talks with the so-called P5+1 group of nations (Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States, plus Germany), took a 15-minute walk with Kerry on January 14 through the streets of Geneva.

On January 24, Iranian newspapers reported 21 members of parliament had signed a petition calling on Zarif to provide an explanation.

Fars news agency published the petition, one section of which read, “Given the Great Satan’s endless demands and sabotage during the course of the nuclear negotiations, there is no conceivable ground for intimacy between the foreign ministers of Iran and America.”

The petition also said, “Your exhibitionist walk together with (Kerry) along Geneva sidewalks was certainly outside the norms of diplomacy, so why don’t you put a stop to such behavior?”
Based on reporting by Reuters and AP
RFE/RL