TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s hard-line president said today that his country welcomes talks with the United States should the American president prove to be “honest” in extending its hand toward Iran, one of the strongest signals yet that Tehran welcomes Barack Obama’s calls for dialogue.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s comments come after Obama said his administration is looking for opportunities to engage Iran and pledged to rethink Washington’s relationship with Tehran. At his inauguration in January, Obama said his administration would reach out to rival states, saying, “We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”
Last month, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rebuffed Obama’s video message on the occasion of Nowruz, the Persian new year, in which the president reached out to the Iranian people. Khamenei said Tehran was still waiting to see concrete changes in U.S. policy.
But Ahmadinejad offered a more conciliatory tone today.
“The Iranian nation welcomes a hand extended to it should it really and truly be based on honesty, justice and respect,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast live on state television.
Ahmadinejad, however, said Obama will meet the fate of former President George W. Bush if he is proved not to be honest.
“But if, God forbid, the extended hand has an honest appearance but contains no honesty in content, it will meet the same response the Iranian nation gave to Mr. Bush,” Ahmadinejad said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said today that the Obama administration is deeply concerned by reports that a detained American journalist in Iran has been charged with espionage and wants her released quickly.
“We are deeply concerned by the news that we’re hearing,” Clinton told reporters at the State Department, adding that the administration has asked Swiss diplomats in Iran for the “most accurate, up-to-date information” information on Roxana Saberi. Saberi’s lawyer said earlier in Tehran that she had been charged with spying.
“We wish for her speedy release and return to her family,” Clinton said.
The 31-year-old U.S.-born journalist who has reported for the BBC, NPR and other media was arrested in late January. Iranian officials said at the time that she was working in the Islamic Republic with expired press credentials.
The charges against her come two days after her parents visited their daughter in Evin prison. The couple from North Dakota met Saberi for half an hour in a prison north of the capital, Tehran — the first time they had spoken to her since she called them on Feb. 10 to say she had been arrested.
Saberi grew up in Fargo and is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Iran. She has lived in Iran for six years and has reported for several news organizations.
Iranian leaders have struck a moderate — but cautious — tone about Obama since his election in November. Ahmadinejad sent Obama a message of congratulations after he was elected — the first time an Iranian leader offered such wishes to the winner of a U.S. presidential race since the two countries broke off relations.
Diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Iran were cut after the U.S. Embassy hostage-taking that followed the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The revolution toppled the pro-U.S. shah and brought to power a government of Islamic clerics.
The United States cooperated with Iran in late 2001 and 2002 in the Afghanistan conflict, but the promising contacts fizzled — and were extinguished completely when Bush branded Tehran part of the “axis of evil.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
