The remark came as Pompeo had criticized US media for holding talks with Foreign Minister Zarif during his last week stay in New York. Pompeo had said that he was ready to come to Tehran and talk with the Iranian people through the local media.
“Whenever US tried to restrict our diplomacy, our diplomats, especially Mr. Zarif, didn’t allow it. Zarif’s visits to several American and African countries and interviews with different media made US Secretary of State call for talks with Iranian outlets,” said Rabiei today in a press conference in Tehran. “We are ready for this and Ms. Marzieh Hashemi can go there and hold an interview with him [Pompeo]. He can say whatever he wishes and we are not afraid of what he would say.”
In his recent visit to New York, Zarif and his delegation were restricted by US administration to just move between four buildings, however, the Iranian minister held several interviews with major media including CNN, CBS, and BBC.
Marzieh Hashemi is a 59-year-old American-born Muslim convert and an American-Iranian journalist and anchor working in Tehran-based PressTV. In January 2019, when she detained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at St. Louis Lambert International Airport in Missouri while in the US to visit her ill brother and other family members. A US federal court failed to indict the journalist, who was arrested as a material witness and in an unspecified criminal proceeding, of any crime and she was released after 10 days of detention, during which she was forced to remove her hijab.
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