Door open to talks, Iranian hints
Says nuclear issue could be resolved with incentives
UNITED NATIONS -- Iran's foreign minister expressed optimism yesterday that negotiations would resolve the dangerous impasse over his country's nuclear program, raising hopes that Iran might voluntarily curb uranium enrichment in exchange for economic and technological incentives.
``We do believe that the issue is once again on track now based on negotiations," Manouchehr Mottaki said in an interview with The Boston Globe. ``All the parties should help and support."
The positive words about the current US-backed negotiations led by Britain, France, and Germany stand in contrast to Mottaki's comments 18 months ago, when he said he was ``not optimistic" that the parties would be able to come to any agreement. He said yesterday that European Union representative Javier Solana and Iran's chief negotiator, Ali Larijani, had been in phone contact and would meet again soon.
If Iran accepts the incentives, offered this summer, it could usher in a new era of improved relations between Iran and the West, and could result in the first high-level talks between the United States and Iran since 1979, when the two countries cut ties. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week that she would meet Mottaki ``anywhere, anytime" if Iran suspends its enrichment of uranium.
Mottaki yesterday also said that Iran had undertaken a new effort to deepen ties with governments in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Allies there could bolster Iran if negotiations over its nuclear program fail, and the United States and its European allies try to sanction and isolate the Islamic regime.
``In the last one year, the new government -- compared with the years after the revolution -- has had very active participation in different international gatherings, as well as bilateral exchange of views," Mottaki said .
He said Iran was pursuing a ``new trend" in foreign policy based on ``justice," a word that Iranian officials have used to call for a halt to what they consider unreasonable interference by the United States.
In recent months, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has toured the developing world, searching for new alliances and giving speeches against US interference. In June, he spoke at the Beijing-based Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, alongside Russia and China, and attended the African Unity summit in Gambia. In July, he visited Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. In September, he traveled to Senegal, Venezuela, and finally Cuba, where he met with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a host of other leaders of the developing world at the summit of ``nonaligned" countries.
Yesterday, as Mottaki outlined Iran's foreign policy priorities, he did not mention better ties with the United States or Europe.
``We would like to continue our good relations with all the countries in the world who would like to have good relations with Iran," he said, but then stated that some countries ``consider themselves the owner of the world," a clear reference to the United States.
Still, he said, Iran had been willing to talk directly with the United States in Iraq, where both countries have significant influence and express a common interest in seeing the elected Shi'ite-dominated government succeed.
Iraqi government officials encouraged direct US-Iranian talks on Iraq, and President Bush authorized them this spring, but they never took place. Now the US government accuses Iran of supporting Shi'ite militias that fuel sectarian violence.
Mottaki said the opportunity for talks in Iraq was lost. He said Iran had agreed to engage in such talks to help the Iraqi government, but said the US government tried to use the talks ``for their own propaganda and that's why we stopped the process."
He said Iran considers sectarian violence in Iraq ``unusual" and ``unnatural," and believes it has been planned by former members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party and their ``foreign supporters."
Mottaki said Iran was working with Iraq's neighbors on an initiative to help stop sectarian violence. He said US troops in Iraq were a ``cause of tension" in the country, but said that Iran would not ``impose" its views on the Iraqi government.
