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18 April 2009 Iran could respond to U.S. efforts
to engage with Tehran if Washington turns the new
tenor of its words into reality, Iranian Foreign
Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying by a
Japanese newspaper.
U.S. President Barack Obama has rolled back his
predecessor George W. Bush's policy of animosity with
Iran.
The United States also joined Russia, China, France,
Germany and Britain in asking EU foreign policy chief
Javier Solana to find a diplomatic solution to Iran's
nuclear work.
Tehran said on Wednesday that it had prepared
proposals to end the stalemate, but gave no details.
"We are studying the comments of the U.S. government
precisely and with respect," Mottaki was quoted as
saying in an interview with the Yomiuri newspaper
published in Japanese on Friday.
"If the Obama administration turns its expressions of
change into reality, there can also be change on our
side," he added.
Mottaki is in Tokyo to attend a gathering of
Pakistan's allies and donors, who are expected to
pledge some $4 billion to fund efforts on poverty
alleviation, education and health in the cash-strapped
nuclear-armed South Asian country.
Asked about Iran's new proposal for breaking the
stalemate over its nuclear work, Mottaki said it would
be a revision of a proposal made in May, and was in
response to the new global situation, the Yomiuri
said.
Mottaki similarly told reporters that he was in Tokyo
primarily for the Pakistan meeting. "That is our main
agenda," he said.
Mottaki praised Obama's vision of a world without
nuclear arms, but added it was the right of every
country to have nuclear power, the Yomiuri said. |
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