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TEHRAN, March 18: Iran’s supreme religious leader on Monday flatly rejected any suggestion of direct talks with the United States following a US senator’s rare overture for dialogue.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has always vehemently ruled out talks with the “Great Satan”, said those willing to negotiate with Washington were only revealing their weakness.
“Negotiations are not the solution and will not solve any problems,” he told a ceremony in a speech broadcast on state television.
“Those who think about negotiations when they are threatened are showing their weakness,” he added in reference to Iranian government officials who have reacted favourably to the calls for dialogue with Washington.
Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, offered last week to meet Iranian legislators in Washington or elsewhere and urged reconciliation between the traditional foes.
While reformists allied to President Mohammad Khatami have sought in recent years cautiously to repair ties with Washington, conservatives argue that relations with the US would betray the 23-year-old Islamic revolution’s tenets.
CARROT AND STICK: Biden, a Democrat senator, said he was seeking to help “those who seek change in Iran” and was “prepared to receive members of the Iranian Majlis (parliament) whenever its members would like to visit (and) if...that’s too sensitive, I’m prepared to meet them elsewhere”.
Biden’s offer sharply contrasted with President George W. Bush’s branding of Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, as part of an “axis of evil” seeking to develop weapons of mass destruction, identifying them as potential targets in the U.S. war on terrorism.
Khamenei, who holds all the keys of power in Iran and has the final say on foreign policy, said “America is basically opposed to the Islamic Republic and if it makes a move it is tactical and deceitful...so do negotiations have any meaning?”
Before Khamenei’s remarks, Iranian reformists had cautiously welcomed Biden’s olive branch.
“From the government’s point of view, there is no special obstacle to dialogue between Iranian and American thinkers and representatives,” government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh was quoted as saying by newspapers on Monday.
“It’s up to the parliamentarians,” he said.
Ramazanzadeh said Iran’s policy was “to have dialogue with everyone seeking peace”.
But he added: “No one can on one hand accuse our country and at the same time offer dialogue...The mistrust between us can only be solved by practical U.S. steps.”
Iranian state radio said Biden’s “seemingly friendly words” were typical “of the so-called carrot and stick policy.”
European Union states have pursued a policy of engagement in Iran, backing Khatami in his timid attempts to turn the Islamic Republic into a more open state while censuring alleged human rights abuses and repeated judicial crackdowns.
Khatami last week visited two Western European countries, Austria and Greece.—Reuters
