Iran's former parliament speaker on Saturday urged direct talks with the United States to break down the ''walls of mistrust,'' but said Tehran would not give up the right to produce nuclear fuel and pursue other technological
advances. ''This silence between the two countries cannot go on forever,'' Mehdi Karroubi told The Associated Press. ''The ice should be broken and the walls of mistrust should fall.''
To that end, he said he ''supported direct talks but on equal terms'' in which the United States did not enter negotiations as a ''bully.'' Karroubi, once a leading figure among conservatives, began a reformist movement before last year's presidential elections and accused Iran's leadership of manipulating the vote to favor the surprise winner, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Karroubi, a parliament speaker from 2000 to 2004, finished third.
Karroubi's official power has faded, but he maintains considerable influence through his pipeline to the nation's ruling clerics and his own authority as a hojjatoleslam, or a mid-ranking cleric. Although Karroubi strongly endorsed direct and wide-ranging contacts with Washington, he held firm to one key position of the hard-line government: Iran cannot give up the right to enrich uranium and have full control over its nuclear program.
''Technology and knowledge are our national right,'' he said. ''This is not negotiable ... but we should move forward on many diplomatic levels.'' The United States and several allies claim Iran's nuclear ambitions include developing atomic weapons. Iran insists it only wants reactors for peaceful energy purposes.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Karroubi.html