Iran tells Obama not to miss chance for talks

IRAN: Iran reiterated on Wednesday its desire for talks with the new administration of US President Barack Obama as both sides show tentative signs of shifting policy after three decades of severed ties.

“In order to prevent any pre-judgement, we think Mr Obama should be given this opportunity. We don’t want Mr Obama to miss this opportunity,” foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi told reporters.

Ghashghavi, however, insisted that any dialogue must be based on conditions of “mutual respect and fair play.” Hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Tehran was prepared to talk to Washington if there was mutual respect and equality between the archfoes, which have had no diplomatic relations for almost 30 years.

Relations between Iran and the United States are tense over Iran’s controversial nuclear drive which the West believes is a cover for a secret atomic weapons programme. Tehran denies the charge.

Ghashghavi stressed that Washington had to show “serious and fundamental changes in its policies” if the talks were to be fruitful.

“We have never clenched our fists. (Obama’s predecessor George W.) Bush had clenched them,” he said.

He was referring to Obama’s remarks last month in an interview with pan-Arab Al-Arabiya television that “if countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fists, they will find an extended hand from us.”

Obama’s offer was a clear shift from the policy of Bush who had refused to talk to Iran unless it halted uranium enrichment, the process which makes fuel for nuclear power plants but can also be used for the core of an atomic bomb.

Tehran, Thursday, AFP