The leaders of three branches of Iran's government held a rare publicised meeting in the Victorian-era parliament building in Tehran late on October 30 to discuss working more closely together to attract foreign investment.

Head of the executive, President Hassan Rouhani, met with the head of the judiciary, Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, and his brother and Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani. The Larijanis are part of the single most influential family in Iran.

“Good decisions were made to better attract investment, particularly from Iranian entrepreneurs abroad,” Rouhani said of the meeting, saying all investors and entrepreneurs should be given the chance to enjoy the economic opportunities in Iran.

Expatriate foreign investors often decline to return home fearing arbitrary detention. In the past few years, several dual nationals and foreigners have been sentenced on unspecified charges. Many remain in jail.

Rouhani added that the three government figures had been asked by the Office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to hold liaison meetings more regularly and to brief the press on those meetings.

“I believe that if all the branches of power are united under the supervision of the leader of the Islamic Revolution, the country can move along the path of progress. Of course, the cooperation, consultation and coordination between Iran’s three branches of power is very influential,” said Rouhani.

Neither an unofficial but immensely powerful branch of the country's power structure, the Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which essentially owns great swathes of the Iranian economy, nor the Office of the Supreme Leader, which watches over all government branches and bodies, were represented at the meeting.

When quizzed by reporters over possible responses to US President Donald Trump and his demands that the multilateral nuclear deal with Tehran be 'fixed or nixed', Rouhani said: “The US is pursuing a plot which is to disappoint the Iranian people.”