TEHRAN - An influential Iranian cleric criticized the new U.S. administration on Friday for signaling that it reserved all its options, ranging from diplomacy to military action, to pressure Iran over its nuclear program.
But Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, a former president, also held out the prospect that if U.S. President Barack Obama changed Washington’s approach towards Iran’s disputed nuclear plans the Islamic Republic would cooperate with it in the Middle East.
Obama’s administration has said he would break from his predecessor by pursuing direct talks with Tehran but has also warned Iran to expect more pressure if it did not meet the U.N. Security Council demand to halt nuclear uranium enrichment.
Iran has repeatedly refused to halt atomic activities which the West suspects are aimed at making bombs but which Tehran says are to generate electricity so that it can export more oil.
“We have this expectation that you (the United States) take a fair and wise step so that Iran’s (nuclear) rights would not be violated,” Rafsanjani told worshipers at Friday prayers.
If that happens, the United States “would be able to help the people of this region with the companionship and cooperation of Iran so that we solve the region’s problems”, he said in the sermon at Tehran University broadcast live on state radio.
FULL ARTICLE
30 January 2009
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