IRAN OFFERS WASHINGTON WITH AN OLIVE BRANCH
TEHRAN - 21 Jun. (IPS) Iranian regime’s number two man offered the United States an olive branch "provided that Washington quits its imperialist and hegemonic policies and shows good will".
"If America drops its bullying as well as its imperialist policies, the
Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to co-operate with that country", former
Iranian president Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said Friday during the
weekly prayers.
Ever since Iranian press and lawmakers revealed that Tehran and Washington were in secret talks studying best ways and means of normalising relations, this is the first time that Iran’s most powerful man after the leader brands an olive branch to the United States.
"Iran is not pursuing an adventurist policy against America and if that country shows good will and treats other countries on an equal footing, Iran is ... ready for any kind of co-operation with America", Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani added, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.
However, political analysts observed that nowhere in his speech Mr. Hahsemi Rafsanjani talked about resuming relations with Washington, or even holding talks at official level, as demanded by the United States.
According to press revelations, Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani had dispatched a team, led by a former Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, to Cyprus to meet American officials there.
It was after these divulgations, confirmed by influent lawmakers, that Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the leader of the Iranian regime imposed a black out on the press on any article, comment or opinions concerning Iran-American talks.
Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani cited neighbouring Afghanistan as a "clear example" of the kind of co-operation Iran and the United States could have, noting that the Americans themselves have thanked Iran for it's assistance in that war-shattered nation.
Alongside Russia, Iran had supported the Northern Alliance forces during the six years the orthodox Muslim Taleban were ruling over Afghanistan and also played an important role at bringing closer Afghan groups that met in Bonn, Germany to agree on the creation of an interim government.
Though Iran was one of the first nation to officially condemn the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington, giving new hopes to improved ties, but relations degraded sharply after Mr. Khameneh'i started a series of bitter attacks on American leadership in the one hand and condemning American military intervention in Afghanistan on the other.
In answer, US President George W. Bush placed the Islamic Republic among nations that form an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and North Korea and latter, the State Department said denounced the Iranian regime as the most active supporter of terrorism and terrorist organisations in the world.
Washington cut all relations with the Islamic Republic and imposed strict economic sanctions after Iranian revolutionary students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took 55 American diplomats and staff hostage for 444 days.
Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani, who, as Chairman of the Assembly for Discerning the Interests of the State, or the Expediency Council, sits between the leader and the president, condemned the US for accusing Iran of supporting terrorism because of the Islamic Republic's "moral and political backing for freedom seekers who struggles in the Middle East", a reference to Palestinian and Arab hard line groups opposed to any peace process with Israel, a state that Iranian clerical rulers do not recognise, but also wants to eradicate from the map of the earth.
"They are falsely referring to the Islamic Republic of Iran as a supporter of terrorism because we back Palestinians, but America which is backing Israel with all means,is said to be the supporter of civilisation and righteousness", Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani added.
He also attacked Israel for the erection a fence separating Israel from the West Bank, saying the decision indicated that Israeli officials were having "nightmares".
"This wall reminds those of Berlin and China which were built under special conditions. Today, while the rest of the world are trying to demolish walls, Israel is trying to build a wall", he noted, while calling on the Muslim world to provide more support for Palestinians.
"The situation in Israel has turned into a hell for the people of that country and Israelis are staying in a bad mental condition and stress in the wake of the holy war, carried out by a small group of Palestinians", the cleric said, referring to Palestinian suicide bombers. ENDS IRAN US COOPERATION 21602