Iran To US: We're Ready For 'Dialogue With Respect'

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Iran Offers ‘Dialogue With Respect’ With U.S.

By NAZILA FATHI
Published: February 10, 2009


TEHRAN -- After the icy mutual hostility of the Bush era, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran on Tuesday made a conditional offer of dialogue to the Obama administration, saying Tehran was ready for “talks based on mutual respect and in a fair atmosphere.”

Mr. Ahmadinejad spoke at a rally on Tuesday in Tehran marking the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution in 1979.

But he coupled the offer with an attack on former President Bush, calling for him to be “tried and punished” for his policies and actions in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf region.

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s remarks came in a televised address to a rally marking the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution in 1979 which deposed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, ended the close relationship between Washington and Tehran, and replaced it with decades of confrontation that culminated in former President Bush’s description of Iran as part of an “axis of evil.”

Since the inauguration of President Obama last month, however, Washington has sounded a more conciliatory tone, despite profound differences over Iran’s nuclear program and its support for political groups in the Middle East that the United States considers to be terrorists.

“The new U.S. administration has said that it wants change and it wants to hold talks with Iran,” President Ahmadinejad said.

“It is clear that change should be fundamental, not tactical, and our people welcome real changes,” he said. “Our nation is ready to hold talks based on mutual respect and in a fair atmosphere.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/world/middleeast/11iran.html?_r=2&hp