| U.S. should change policies to build confidence with Iran - Envoy |
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New York, March 21, IRNA -- Iran's U.N. ambassador Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian said here Tuesday that the new U.S. administration is hoped to survey bilateral ties from a realistic and historical outlook and adopt new policies to build confidence and goodwill between Tehran and Washington. Nejad-Hosseinian, who was addressing Iranian and American students, professors, researchers and experts, said the U.S. record has shown that it has no goodwill for talks with Iran. The Iranian diplomat said former policies of the U.S., including variety of economic sanctions issued against Iran, the country's enmity with Iran at the international fora and its efforts to put Iran in isolation in the region and the world to weaken its national security and slowdown its economic programs and development, cannot be definitely signs of Washington's goodwill for direct talks with Tehran for promotion of bilateral relations. He blasted the U.S. stances against Iran and said the former has not been much decisive to hold direct talks and despite explicit offers, it is not ready for the talks. Touching on chronology of Iran-U.S. ties, Nejad-Hosseinian said real change in bilateral ties can be possible only through major changes in the U.S. policy and its approach against Iran. Once the U.S. policy on undermining Iran's national security changes and economic sanctions, which have been proved ineffective, are lifted, the feeling for distrust too will subside, said the diplomat. The policy has been devised on the basis of the policy of Iran's containment and there have been such goals in adoption of such policy as restricting Iran's power for growth and development through any possible means, including imposition of diversity of economic sanctions against Iran's partners, opposition against allocation of loans by the international financial institutes, opposition against transfer of gas pipelines from the Caspian sea through the most suitable route of Iran and modernization of the U.S. propaganda machine to harm Iran's national security. He said that under present circumstances, the expectation for direct talks on such thorny issues as the peace process, terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is not realistic. He stressed that the three issues have not been picked up by the U.S. because of their theme, rather the selection points to U.S.' hostile attitude toward Iran. Otherwise, one could expect the U.S. to be more anxious about Israel's mass destruction weapons' arsenal and state terrorism sponsored by the entity, rather than caring for Iran's peaceful nuclear program and its support for the Palestinian people who are now under foreigners' occupation. As long as Washington's hostility remains in place and the feeling of distrust prevails in Tehran, any direct talks by Iran and the U.S. on their disputes on the three above-mentioned issues will be futile. Nejad-Hosseinian referred to contradictions in stances and statements of the American officials on Iran and asked, ``How can one justify the U.S.' present hostile policies under the conditions that Washington speaks about adoption of a strategy for normalization of ties with Iran?'' Some ask whether insufficient progress in Iran-U.S. ties have been due to Washington's opposition against Islam or Iranian people's choice of their own system of government, said Nejad-Hosseinian, adding that although response to the question is to some extent ambiguous, but given official statements of several US presidents, one should take a negative response to the question. Lack of sufficient creativity on the part of the U.S. policy makers to compile clear-cut and effective measures to speed up establishment of more normal ties between Iran and U.S. can be a reason for current status of Iran-U.S. ties. The second reason for the ongoing status is the role of the U.S.' internal policies, including certain influential and powerful groups of the third party, in the decision making processes in Washington, commented the diplomat. The Iranian envoy stressed that as long as the U.S. policy toward Iran has not been improved to a large extent, there will be weak probability for real progress, he added. Nejad-Hosseinian said that unfortunately the first ``discouraging' measure Washington adopted against Iran following coming to power of its new administration, has been extension of the defeated policy of its former administration concerning the economic embargoes. Considering statements of the high-ranking officials of the new US administration on their readiness to reform the US policy on Iran, Tehran is closely following the developments made by the new administration, said Nejad-Hosseinian, adding that despite extension of the economic sanctions, Iran is considering the statements, raised in Washington on the need for reconsideration of the U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic, with cautious optimism. He expressed hope that the new U.S. administration will survey relations with Iran from realistic and historical points of view and devise new policies that will bear constructive changes in the former policies so as to build confidence and good will between Iranian and American nations. Under such conditions hostility will be removed and ground will be paved for more normal ties and holding more constructive and helpful talks, he added. Elsewhere in his speech, Nejad-Hosseinian congratulated the audience on advent of the new year and commencement of the spring season. Spring for Iranians, the Persian speaking countries and certain other regional states has a rich concept and is of high importance, he added. Nejad-Hosseinian said it is source of optimism to see that Iranians all over the U.S. have maintained their rich cultural heritage and civilization and form the most successful minority in the U.S. community. He then switched to socio-political developments in Iran and said there is a general consensus in Iran on more public contribution, freedom, reforms and changes and said they are integral part of the 1979-Islamic Revolution in Iran. Democracy is growing in Iran and the feeling for stability and self-confidence have grown among Iran's top officials and people so that they have been provided with the chance to criticize each other and make better use of the opportunities available for the sake of development. ``We are still in stage of learning and like any other democratic systems we should tolerate pressures and due costs so as to attain freedom and democracy; we are in stage of creating national consensus on dimension and speed of changes and reforms in Iran,'' said the Iranian official. The reforms and dimension of changes are decided by the public and the Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has on different occasions stressed the need for active contribution of the public in national affairs, said the Iranian envoy. Nejad-Hosseinian said reforms trend is irreversible and peaceful. Turning to Iran's internal and external policies, Nejad-Hosseinian said there is a direct and strong link between Iran's internal and external policies, that are based on dialogue, detente, peaceful co-existence through acceptance of balance between common interests as well as based on mutual respect and equality of the governments' sovereignty. He stressed that any progress or regress in each of the policies will directly impact on the other one. He touched on Iran's considerable success in implementation of its foreign policies and said Iran has promoted its ties with almost all its Arab neighbors and is busy adopting measures to build confidence with them. Moreover, Iran has promoted its relations with Russia, Japan, China, the Central Asian republics and the European Union (EU) members and is now in talks with the countries on key issues of mutual interest. He said long way is ahead for promotion of Iran-U.S. ties. Cultural relations between Iranian and American nations have had considerable impact on increased understanding, mutual respect and establishment of the bridges of confidence and trust, he added. The Iranian ambassador expressed hope that current obstacles on the way of effective popular exchanges between Iran and the U.S. would be removed. |
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