NPR's Steve Inskeep was part of a small group of journalists who met with an Iranian official on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. He tells Leila Fadel what he learned.

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

The president of Iran has spent much of this week in New York. It's a rare occasion, a president visiting a country while his nation is at war with it. Masoud Pezeshkian was here for the annual meeting of the United Nations, and he met with journalists yesterday, including our Steve Inskeep. Good morning, Steve.

STEVE INSKEEP, BYLINE: Good morning.

FADEL: So what did you get out of the session?

INSKEEP: I felt that I got some insights into how Iran sees the effort to end this war. President Pezeshkian was with Abbas Araghchi, who is Iran's foreign minister. And he - Araghchi - is the diplomat who met with U.S. officials this week. So we got to hear a little bit from both. This started, I should tell you, as an off-the-record session with nobody to be quoted. But afterward, Iranian officials consented to put many comments on the record, so I can tell you a little bit about what was.

FADEL: How do the Iranians see the talks?

INSKEEP: They gave the impression that they were going through these talks without much optimism. The president said, quote, we have "no trust" in the United States since the U.S. has attacked Iran during negotiations before. He said Iran is only negotiating so the U.S. cannot claim that Iran is refusing to negotiate and is going for a bomb and so forth. The foreign minister said he met this week with two people who were close to President Trump - Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. This was a three-hour meeting that was supposed to be secret, according to the Iranians, but then President Trump disclosed it, and that led to a public backlash in Iran where politicians say the foreign minister went beyond his instructions to have a meeting at all.

FADEL: Oh, interesting. What did the foreign minister discuss with Witkoff and Kushner?

INSKEEP: OK, it seems on the deal on the table is not that complicated to understand on a basic level. The two sides would return to at least some of the terms from the memorandum of understanding that the two sides already agreed to once and that fell apart. Essentially, Iran gets some assets unfrozen, and then after a few days, Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Although we should note, again, this is something they tried once, and it just didn't get to fruition, didn't get to the end.

FADEL: Now, Steve, you reported from inside Iran over the years. How would you describe the president's place in Iranian politics?

INSKEEP: This is ironic, Leila, given that the U.S. is at war with this country. He's seen as a reformer, part of the faction in Iran that wants more openness and better relations with the United States. Iranians voted for him in 2024. They vote for reformers very, very often, the ordinary folks in Iran. It is a clerical government, but this president is not a cleric. He's a heart surgeon who said he ran for office wanting to restore his people's health. Instead, the war has made it all worse. In fact, he had a very personal way of talking about American sanctions. He claimed the United States, quote, "wants to eviscerate our society from within (ph)." And he said unemployment in Iran can cause friction between spouses and divorce, which he brought up twice.

FADEL: Oh, interesting. Is he calling for peace?

INSKEEP: Not exactly. He's more defiant, as you might expect. He said Iran was finding new pathways for trade. He said the U.S. has the power to destroy anything, sure. But can they impose a surrender that is impossible? - he said. He said Iran is willing to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities, but then he noted that President Trump keeps saying he obliterated Iran's nuclear facilities. If you obliterated them, what is there to inspect?

We should note, this is the Iranian version of events. The White House gave us a statement saying, we are having positive and constructive discussions through the mediators. And the U.S. also says they're not in a rush to reach a deal because they are getting barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, whether Iran says it's open or not.

FADEL: Now, he's not the top figure in Iran. Any word on the supreme leader, the cleric who makes final decisions?

INSKEEP: Yeah. The president says he had two meetings with the supreme leader, seven hours total. And the supreme leader seemed healthy to him. I did not see any major challenges with his health, although U.S. officials have suggested the leader was severely wounded at the start of the war. And in any case, Mojataba Khamenei has not been seen.

FADEL: Our MORNING EDITION co-host Steve Inskeep. Thank you, Steve.

INSKEEP: You're welcome.

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