Top Iran diplomat in hospital over misquote on US

AP: Iran’s foreign minister says he checked himself into hospital because of back pain and spasms he felt after a hard-line newspaper misquoted him on the subject of the new president’s outreach to the U.S.
The Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister says he checked himself into hospital because of back pain and spasms he felt after a hard-line newspaper misquoted him on the subject of the new president’s outreach to the U.S.

Mohammad Javad Zarif says on his Facebook page that he cancelled his appointments and went to hospital late on Tuesday.

He says he became upset after Kayhan daily “misquoted” him as saying Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s recent telephone conversation with President Barack Obama was “inappropriate.”

Although Iran’s top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has backed Rouhani’s outreach to the U.S., he has hinted that some aspects of those efforts were “not appropriate.”

This was understood to refer to the Obama-Rouhani phone conversation during the Iranian president’s visit to the U.N. General Assembly in New York last month.