TEHRAN, March 17: Iran’s government announced on Sunday it will not oppose talks between Iranian and US legislators and wants to clear up mistrust between Tehran and Washington.

“We reject any condition that would interfere in our internal affairs, but holding talks between precise bodies, such as parliament, is not forbidden,” government spokesman Abdullah Ramazan-Zadeh told a press conference.

“Whether discussions take place or not, that depends on Iranian deputies,” he said, in reference to an invitation last Wednesday from US Senator Joseph Biden for Iranian MPs to visit Washington.

“We accept any form of discussion, so long as it is not characterized by interference or threat. The mistrust between the two countries must be cleared up,” he said.

The spokesman said the Islamic Republic of Iran was “waiting for a gesture from the United States to reestablish confidence between the two countries.”

President Mohammad Khatami has long proposed a dialogue between civilizations and told the US television network CNN in January 1998 that Iran was ready for talks with US academics and intellectuals, he stressed.

Signs have emerged of a possible thaw between Washington and Tehran but they were tempered by Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who on Thursday ruled out dialogue under “threats” from the United States.

But last Wednesday, Biden, a Democratic senator, invited Iranian MPs to Washington and offered a plan to improve ties.

“I am prepared to receive members of the Iranian Majlis (parliament) whenever its members would like to visit,” Biden told members of the Iranian-American Council.

“If Iranian parliamentarians believe that’s too sensitive, I’m prepared to meet them elsewhere,” added Biden, who chairs the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Meanwhile, a senior Iranian politician said on Thursday in a newspaper report that the United States and Iran are already engaged in direct contacts in an effort to resolve regional problems.

“There are at present contacts of a sort ongoing on crisis management and to exchange information, without intermediaries,” parliament’s deputy speaker Mohsen Armin said.

And Iran’s reformist president, Khatami, in an interview with the Austrian daily Kronen Zeitung, also said Iran was ready to talk with the US government.

“I am sure that if the Americans make a step and show their goodwill towards us, the great Iranian people are ready for successful talks with any people in the world, on an equal basis,” he said.

However, Khamenei, said that any dialogue must be ruled out because of US threats.—AFP