Mr. Mohammad Javad Zarif, the new Iranian Ambassador at the United Nation made the surprising declaration during an impromptu meeting with a number of "selected" newspapers editors before his departure for New York, the pro-reform internet newspaper "Emrooz" (Today) reported Saturday.

"My main duty in the United Nations (is) to lobby (for) Iranian relations with the United States and I’ve received all necessary authorisations for this activity from high officials", Mr. Zarif, a former Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister said, pointing out that "everything" he would do in this regard would be in "advise" and "consultation" with the "highest ranking authorities", who he did not identify.

The declaration is also surprising as it is made days only after Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, who, as the absolute leader of the Islamic Republic, decides the regime’s foreign policies, had again rejected any dialogue with the United States, saying that such talks are "meaningful and harmful to the regime’s interests".

Taking cue from the statement, the Revolutionary Guards, in a statement, attacked reformists and lawmakers who support direct talking with Washington, accusing them as American’s "fifth column".

As rumours about the conservatives getting ready for staging a "mini coup" aimed at closing the reformists-controlled Majles and placing the government under the command of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani alarmed the nation, some informed reformers sources the plan, prepared by the former president and approved by the leader is aimed at "finishing off the reform movement and start direct dialogue with Washington".

Mr. Zarif urged the editors to refrain from "atmosphere-making" and "harming" his and his team’s efforts in that regard and called on them "not to make any hasty judgments".

Invited to explain details about his mission, Mr. Zarif said he is a "technocrat" who decides on orders from his boss, and added that in a similar meeting with a number of Majles deputies, he had told them same tings and made same recommendations, emphasising that in the "framework of an approved plan and programme, he should establish lobby contacts with all the three flanks (that have) influence over American policies on Iran", "Emrooz" added.

Mr. Zarif did not identify the "flanks" with influence on Washington’s policies about Iran, but analysts said he might be referring to the State Department, the Defence Department and the National Security Council as the three main sources within overwhelming influence on President George W. Bush.

According to "Emrooz", after his nomination at the UN, Mr. Zarif, had become the target of "an all out, vicious and concerted campaign" from the hard line "Keyhan" newspaper that speaks for Mr. Khameneh'i and ultra-radical conservatives, but was "shut" after receiving a call from the office of one official, "correcting the paper’s Editor".

Though "Emrooz", which appeared shortly after the closure of "No Rooz", the semi official organ of Islamic Iran Participation Front, the nation’s largest political organisation that is led by Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the younger brother of the embattled President, did not say the office of which "official" had "corrected" Mr. Hosey Shari’atmadari, the leader-appointed Editor of "Keyhan", but it is obvious that the order to shut up could not have come but by the office of Mr. Khameneh'i.

The usually well-informed Farsi-language internet daily also named the Dr. Ali Akbar Velayati, the former Foreign Affairs Minister who now is the leader’s Special Adviser of International Affaires as the "boss" of the special group in charge of solving the thorny Iran-America relations.