The United States remained reluctant to have direct talks with
hostile Iran on Thursday, insisting there are many ways for
communication between Washington and Tehran.
"Our view at this point is that there are plenty of channels of
communication if the Iranians want to pass information to us or we
want to pass information to them," State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack said at a news briefing.
The spokesman also said that problems that Iran has right now is
not just between the United States and Iran.
"The concerns about Iran's nuclear program, the concerns about
their support for terrorism, the concerns about the treatment of
their own people, these are global concerns.... This Iranian regime
would like to turn it into a US-Iran issue, but it's just not the
case," McCormack said.
Washington has been accusing Tehran, among others, of developing
secretly nuclear weapons, but it refuses to have negotiation with
the Islamic Repbulic.
The Bush administration is facing pressure both in the United
States and overseas to drop its long-standing refusal to talk
directly with Iran about its nuclear program, particularly in the
wake of the unusual 18-page letter sent this week to President Bush
by Iran's president.
Meanwhile, visiting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said
in Jakarta that Iran was ready to have a dialogue with the United
States and other Western countries to overcome the standoff on the
dispute of its nuclear program, but he accused the countries of
imposing double standard on the issue.
The Iranian President made the statement in an interview with
the local Metro TV station.
He reaffirmed that the people of Iran try to make the use of the
nuclear energy for peaceful use, has been accused of other
intention.
"This all are just political charges. But we are ready to speak
to every body to engage in dialogue with every body," said
Ahmadinejad.
The president reaffirmed that Iran would use the technology to
produce energy for power plants and also for other applications
including medicine industry, agriculture and it has nothing to do
with nuclear weapons or military purposes.
"There is a tension come from the practice of double standards.
There are few powers in the world respond to manipulate science and
technology in the world, use it to dominate other nation in the
world," he said.
Regarding to the possible sanction from western countries, the
president said that it would not be effective as the country has
low dependency on the Western countries and the people of Iran
would support the government.
The United States is backing a draft Untied Nation resolution
that could lead to sanctions and possible military action against
Iran if the country does not suspend uranium enrichment.
Iran has said that it will not build a nuclear bomb, but US and
European officials suspect Iran secretly develop the nuclear for
that purpose.
The Iranian president who came here on Wednesday for an official
visit to Indonesia, is to fly to the resort of island of Bali on
Friday for a conference of Eight Developing countries.
(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2006)
