Iran FM urges Obama to choose ‘right path’ towards Tehran
IRAN: Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has expressed hope
that the new U.S. President Barack Obama could choose the right path
towards Tehran, local newspaper Iran Daily reported Tuesday on its
website.
The United States had no correct approach towards Iran and always was
the “troublemaker,” Mottaki was quoted by ISNA news agency as saying,
according to the Iran Daily report.
“But if Obama chooses the right path, compensates the past, ends
hostility and hegemony, and revises past political mistakes, we would
have no hostility,” Mottaki said on the eve of Obama’s inauguration as
the 44th president of the United States.
“We hope that angles of optimism would be created (with Obama) but
the facts tell us we should not be optimistic,” the Iranian foreign
minister added.
Obama was sworn in on Tuesday as the 44th president of the United
States on the west front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., becoming
the first black president in the country’s history.
Obama said earlier this month that Iran would be one of the biggest
challenges that his administration was to face, but Washington must be
“willing to initiate diplomacy” with the country.
The United States, which designated Iran as the world’s “most active
state sponsor of terrorism,” has been accusing Iran of developing
secretly nuclear weapons under the cover of civil nuclear program. Iran
denies the charges.
TEHRAN, Wednesday, Xinhua
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