Iran's President Mohammad Khatami called on the United States on Sunday to accept Tehran's right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes if it wants to see an improvement in ties between the two countries.
Co-operation between Tehran and Washington on relief aid to victims of last month's earthquake in south-eastern Iran led to some signs of rapprochement between the two arch foes with US officials suggesting a resumption of a dialogue with Iran.
But Tehran has so far rebuffed the US offer to re-start limited talks broken off by Washington last May, arguing US officials must first change their attitude towards Iran.
Khatami singled out US criticism of Iran's nuclear programme. Iran says its nuclear facilities are geared to producing electricity, not bombs and last month signed an international protocol binding it to snap inspections of its nuclear facilities.
"They have wrongly accused us of having nuclear weapons," Khatami told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Tehran.
"We have signed the additional protocol and if the Americans have good will now they should take back their words and also accept our legal right to have peaceful nuclear technology under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency."
US President George W. Bush this month praised Tehran for allowing US humanitarian aid to be sent to earthquake victims but at the same time reiterated long-standing accusations that led him to label Iran an "axis of evil" member in 2002.
"The Iranian government must listen to the voices of those who long for freedom, must turn over al Qaeda (members) that are in their custody and must abandon their nuclear weapons programme," Bush said.
Khatami said he hoped that US earthquake relief for Iran, which included a waiver on banking restrictions to speed the flow of donations, "proves to be a strong indication of fundamental change in US policies and that they take back the baseless comments they have made about us."
Comments
Comments are closed.