HARD LINE IRANIAN OFFICIAL OFFER OLIVE BRANCH TO THE US
PARIS 2 Dec. (IPS) Iran’s former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani offered
the United States on Sunday an olive branch, calling on the US to give up its
"bullying practices" if it want to have better relations with the
Islamic Republic, the official news agency IRNA reported.
"It is only in that case that Washington can cooperate with Tehran", Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani said, addressing a meeting of high-ranking officers in Tehran on the occasion of the Navy’s Day, but regretted that the US has yet signalled "no positive sign in that connection toward Iran".
The remarks by Hashemi-Rafsanjani came at a time when several press reports disclosed secret talks between Tehran and Washington on both resuming Iran-US ties as well as the future of Iraq, although both sides officially deny this.
Reformists suspect the ruling hard liners of having deliberately provoked the latest crisis to cover their secret deals with Washington.
Mr. Sadeq Kharrazi, a former Foreign Affairs deputy Minister, now ambassador in Paris, was sacked two months ago after Iran Press Service and some Iranian media revealed that he had been sent secretly to Cyprus by Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani to meet with American officials.
"The U.S. economy is dependent on oil, hence the Americans want oil. We have oil and want to sell it", Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani said, adding: "If the U.S. gave up its bullying policies, Washington could even cooperate with Teheran".
Washington cut off all relations with the Islamic Republic and imposed a unilateral trade embargo after Iranian revolutionary students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 55 American diplomats and embassy staff as hostage for 444 days.
But exchanges on cultural, sports and academic levels developed between the two sides after the election of Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami in the presidential elections of May 1997.
Though the inclusion of Iran into the "axis of evil" last January by President George W. Bush angered Teheran, but the ruling conservatives indicated their readiness to help Washington and London in their plans to overthrow the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hoseyn.
However, Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani expressed Iran’s opposition to attacking Iraq, repeating that the US anti-Iraq campaign "aims at targets beyond Baghdad", stressing that the White House is pursuing serious plans to promote US presence in the Persian Gulf region.
He was referring to Tehran’s genuine worries that Washington, under Israel’s influence would attack Iran after it has toppled Mr. Hoseyn.
He described Iran as a "heavy lever" in promoting the peace and security in the Middle East, stressing that Iran could "solely" guarantee the security in the Persian Gulf.
Warning that the concentration of American forces in the region would "merely jeopardise security", Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani said the oil-rich Persian Gulf would remain safe "as long as we want it".
"The US is wrong to think that it can guarantee its security by mobilising forces into the Persian Gulf", said the former president, who, as the Chairman of the Expediency Council, a body that arbitrate on political and legislative disputes, is considered as one of the regime’s most influential personality after the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i.
"If Iran does not want it, no power can safeguard the security of the Persian Gulf", he said. ENDS IRAN OLIVE BRANCH TO US 31202