The United States has proposed a meeting between President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the fringes of the upcoming U.N. General Assembly in New York, according to a U.S. government source.

The meeting, which Washington hopes will take place around Sept. 25, would be the first face-to-face summit of the leaders of the two countries since the 1979 Iranian Revolution led to decades of tense bilateral relations.

Washington's proposal has been conveyed to Tehran through countries such as France, which has been eager to mediate in the ongoing U.S.-Iran standoff over an Iran nuclear deal reached in 2015. Iran had not responded to the proposal as of Wednesday, the source said.

The Trump administration has stepped up pressure on Iran in a bid to renegotiate the 2015 deal, under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

The United States left the accord last year, seeing it as flawed, and has imposed sanctions on the Middle East country.

While the United States has not set any preconditions for holding the summit, it is unlikely to agree to fully lift the sanctions as sought by Iran.

Asked about the possibility of meeting Rouhani on the occasion of the U.N. General Assembly later in the month, Trump told reporters on Wednesday, "Sure. Anything is possible."

"They would like to be able to solve their problem...They're getting killed, financially," the president said, referring to the inflation in Iran. "They could solve it very quickly. We could solve it in 24 hours," he added.

Tensions between Iran and the United States have been running high as Tehran has pushed its uranium enrichment activities to beyond the level agreed in the nuclear deal after the United States re-imposed sanctions on the country.

Washington and Tehran also remain at odds after a string of attacks on tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, which Washington has blamed on Tehran.