An Iranian foreign minister was summoned to appear before parliament after photographs of him walking next to Secretary of State John Kerry sparked outrage among conservatives in his home country.
Mohammad Javad Zarif was engaging in nuclear talks in Geneva with his counterparts from the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, China, and Russia earlier this month when reporters snapped pictures of him and Kerry walking together along a sidewalk, Reuters reports.
The 15-minute walk occurred Jan. 14 during another series of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Angered by seeing their diplomatic leader alongside a top official from the “Great Satan,” some Iranians signed a petition saying “there is no conceivable ground for intimacy between the foreign ministers of Iran and America.”
Representatives from each of the six countries gathered in Switzerland to discuss lifting sanctions on Iran in exchange for the rollback of some of the country’s nuclear activities, such as uranium enrichment.
The protracted nuclear dispute between Western countries and Iran has spilled into other aspects of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
In what many have viewed as a swipe at Obama for his softening approach to Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted an invitation this week to speak about the looming nuclear threat from House Speaker John Boehner without any involvement from the White House.
The president has threatened to veto any new legislation that ramps up sanctions on Iran.
