|
 Rouhani won a landslide election victory in June promising a
policy of engagement with the West and has had regular diplomatic
contacts with the United States, but they have been limited to
negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program.
"We want to rebuild and improve our relations to European and North
American countries on a basis of mutual respect," he wrote in a
contribution for the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
"We are striving to avoid new burdens on relations between Iran and
the United States and also to remove the tensions that we have
inherited," said Rouhani, who has promised to reduce Tehran's
isolation and to win an easing of sanctions.
Tehran and Washington severed relations after Iran's 1979 Islamic
revolution.
Iran cannot forget everything that has affected relations with the
United States over the last 60 years, he said, but added: "We must
now concentrate on the present and orientate ourselves towards the
future."
Rouhani's diplomatic pragmatism has already resulted in significant
progress. While in New York for the United Nations General Assembly
in September, Rouhani held an historic telephone call with Barack
Obama, the first time the presidents of the two nations have spoken
in more than three decades.
"REMOVING DOUBTS"
Iranian officials subsequently emphasized the call was to support a
diplomatic resolution of Iran's nuclear program and did not concern
direct bilateral ties. Two months later Iran and world powers signed
an interim deal to curb part of Iran's nuclear activities in return
for some sanctions relief.
[to top of second column] |
Rouhani, a former nuclear negotiator, said he was doing whatever he
could to end tensions over Tehran's nuclear activities, which have
raised concerns in the West that Iran is seeking to develop an
atomic weapons capability. Iranian officials have repeatedly denied
such suggestions.
"We have never even considered the option of acquiring nuclear
weapons," Rouhani said. "We'll never give up our right to profit
from nuclear energy. But we are working towards removing all doubts
and answer all reasonable questions about our program."
Iran agreed under the Nov. 24 accord to stop its most sensitive
nuclear work — uranium enrichment to a fissile concentration of 20
percent — and cap other parts of its activities in exchange for some
limited easing of sanctions, including trade in petrochemicals and
gold.
On Sunday, world powers and Iran suspended their technical talks in
Geneva on how to implement the agreement until after the Christmas
holidays following slow progress.
In a posting on Facebook on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif said they would resume early next week but he
described all stages of the talks as complex.
(Reporting by Erik Kirschbaum; additional reporting by Marcus George
in Dubai; editing by Gareth Jones)
[© 2013 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2013 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
