Iranian Senior Official: US Seeking to Ensure Interests through Hostility towards Iran
Secretary of Iran’s Human Rights Council Mohammad Javad Larijani said Washington is continuing its long-held hostility towards Iran because it has defined its interests in animosity towards Tehran.
“Since the beginning of the (Islamic) Revolution, the US has created the most extensive network of hostility and aggression against us and leads the most extensive type of enmity against us because of the fact that the US interests lie in attacking Iran,” Larijani said here in Tehran on Monday.
Larijani further said that Iran’s scientific and industrial progress is the main reason behind the westerners’ hostility towards the country.
He further opposed direct talks between Iran and the US, and said, “… the US is seeking to destroy the Islamic establishment to bring to power a secular dictatorship with the façade of a democracy.”
Iranian officials say conditions are not ripe for direct talks between Iran and the US, reiterating that Washington should drop its hostile policy against Iran first.
The United States and Iran broke diplomatic relations in April 1980, after Iranian students seized the United States’ espionage center at its embassy in Tehran. The two countries have had tense relations ever since, but have shown willingness to attend talks to help resolve regional issues, including security in Iraq. Yet, the two countries have avoided talks on bilateral issues for the last thirty years.
Last week, Washington reiterated its demand for immediate talks with Tehran, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying that the United States is open to bilateral talks about Iran’s nuclear program if Tehran is ready.
Responding to a question in a forum attended by a group of officials, experts and diplomats from the United States and the Middle East in Washington on Friday, Clinton called Iran the hardest issue she has dealt with as secretary of state, and stressed that the Obama administration is prepared for bilateral talks with Iran.
