IRAN READY TO COOPERATE IF OBAMA CHANGES U.S. POLICY
PanARMENIAN.Net
30.01.2009 12:59 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Iran is ready to cooperate with U.S. President Barack
Obama if the United States changes its policies and practices in the
region, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Thursday.
"We do believe that if the new administration of the United States,
as Mr. Obama said, is going to change its policies, not in saying but
in practice, definitely they will find the region in a cooperative
approach and reaction. And Iran is not excluded from this general
understanding in our region," Mottaki said at a panel before the
World Economic Forum.
U.S.-Iranian relations under the Bush administration were frozen. But
a British newspaper reported on Thursday that the U.S. is drafting
a letter to Iran to pave the way for face-to-face talks, and a State
Department official said that U.S. policy toward Iran was under review.
Asked about U.S. relations, Mottaki welcomed the new U.S. President’s
theme of change, upon which he ran his election campaign.
He said the Middle East wanted to see how that manifests itself.
"All the countries in the region are waiting (to see) how this change
is going to introduce itself. Is it a change strategically? Is it a
change in tactics?" he said, adding that Iran also has taken note of
U.S. President Barack Obama’s intention to withdraw troops from Iraq
and believes he should pull out of Afghanistan too.
Mottaki said that Obama had "courage" to say which of the policies
of Bush he disagreed with and said his approach marked a move away
from an era of "might equals right".
"We are in a turning point. We are at a milestone now," he said,
Reuters reports.