MNA – An informed source says President Rouhani refused US President Trump’s repeated requests for meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in Sep. due to Trump’s anti-Iran UN speech.

Shargh Newspaper quoted an informed source in a report this morning as disclosing further details on Donald Trump’s ‘eight’ requests for a meeting with President Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly back in September.

According to the source, who had accompanied the president on his visit to New York, “the Donald Trump team had made several phone calls and even sent a message to schedule a meeting with Mr. Rouhani.”

“The phone calls and the message were made immediately after Trump’s UN speech, to which Hassan Rouhani reacted by saying that Trump’s remarks at the General Assembly session were incongruent with his request for a meeting,” the source said.

“Rouhani held that this is not an appropriate way to request a meeting, to attack the country in one's speech and yet expect to have a meeting,” the source added.

According to the source, the attempts by Trump’s team to contact and meet with Rouhani were made on the same day of the UN General Assembly session in September and after the US president’s speech.

In his much-criticized maiden speech at the United Nations General Assembly, US President Trump accused Iran of engaging in “destabilizing activities” in the region. He also denounced the Iran nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as “embarrassment” that Washington may abandon – which it did on May 8.

In response to his “ignorant and spiteful” remarks against the Iranian nation at the GA session, President Rouhani had said that “by reneging on its promises and violating international obligations, the new US administration will only discredit itself globally and lose the trust of governments and nations in any future negotiations and commitments.”