Minister's misquote pain

Iran's foreign minister says he has 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 US.

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

He said he became upset after Kayhan daily "misquoted" him as saying Iranian President Hassan Rowhani's recent phone conversation with US President Barack Obama was "inappropriate". Although Iran's top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has backed Rowhani's outreach to the US, he has hinted that some aspects of those efforts were "not appropriate".

This was understood to refer to the Obama-Rowhani phone conversation during the Iranian president's visit to the UN General Assembly in New York last month.