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British PM, Iranian president hold first meeting in 35 years

25 September 2014 02:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. British Prime Minister David Cameron and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday met here in New York, the first meeting between leaders of the two countries since the Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Cameron and Rouhani held the meeting at the office of the British Mission to the United Nations, a few blocks away from UN headquarters in downtown New York.

Rouhani smiled as he shook hands with Cameron in front of cameras.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the annual high- level debate of the UN General Assembly, which kicked off here Wednesday morning.

Cameron is due to speak at the high-level UN debate, known as the General Debate, on Wednesday afternoon, while Rouhani is expected to take the floor on Thursday morning.

Cameron-Rouhani meeting came over one day after the United States and its Arab allies launched the first air and sea strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria.

The Wednesday meeting, seen as a significant thaw in diplomatic relations between the two countries, is designed to explore the support the Iranians can give to the fight against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The ISIS, whose fighters had seized vast swaths of territory in northern Iraq since June and announced the establishment of a caliphate in areas under its control in Syria and Iraq, recently released videos showing the beheadings of two American journalists and a British aid worker.