Iran on Saturday dismissed a renewed US offer of dialogue by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying the “contradictions” of pursuing talks at the same time as threats undermined the proposal.
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi made the comment at a joint media conference in Tehran with the visiting leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in neighbouring Iraq, Massud Barzani. Salehi was responding to remarks Clinton made Wednesday to Farsi-language programmes on BBC Farsi and Voice of America (VOA) in which she said Washington was “prepared to engage” with Iran, even as it maintains sanctions.
Salehi was quoted by Iran’s state television website as saying: “We have heard such remarks a lot but unfortunately they are full of contradictions.” He added that, “on one hand, they express interest in establishing relations, and on the other hand some comments are made (by the Americans) which do not jibe with that.”
Accusing the Americans of “arrogance,” Salehi said that establishing relations would only be meaningful “when the two sides begin negotiations on an equal footing and without preconditions — however it seems that the time (for rapprochement) has not arrived yet.”
