Iran leader: US relations could be restored
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - January 3, 2008 "I would be the first one to support these relations," state
radio quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying at a student group
meeting in the central Iranian province of Yazd.
"Of course we never said the severed relations were forever,"
added Khamenei, 69, who has final say in all state matters. "But
for the time being, it (restoring ties) is harmful and we should
not pursue it."
Khamenei said restoring ties with the U.S. now would "provide
an opportunity for security agents to come and go, as well as for
espionage."
"It has no benefit for Iranian nation," state radio quoted him
as saying at a student group meeting in the central province of
Yazd. It would be an "opportunity for U.S. infiltration, traffic
of their intelligence agents and espionage on Iran."
The United States and Iran have had no diplomatic ties since
shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when militant students
seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and published sensitive documents
they found inside documenting American intelligence-gathering in
the country. The embassy, labeled the "Den of Spies," is
occasionally open to public as a museum documenting American
misdeeds in Iran and the region.
The Swiss embassy in Tehran represents the U.S. in Iran, while
the Iranians have an interest section in Pakistan's embassy in
Washington.
Iran last year claimed it had uncovered spy rings organized by
the U.S. and its Western allies and detained four
Iranian-Americans, who were later released. The arrests prompted
the United States to warn its citizens against traveling to Iran,
accusing authorities there of a "disturbing pattern" of
harassment.
The dispute over Iran's nuclear program and U.S. allegations of
Iranian support for armed groups in Iraq have further raised
tensions.
Washington has refused to hold talks with Iran over the issue of
diplomatic ties until Tehran suspends uranium enrichment, a process
that can be used to produce fuel for both nuclear energy and
weapons.
But the two countries have held three rounds of ambassador-level
negotiations on security in Iraq, breaking the 28-year diplomatic
freeze.
Iran says its nuclear program is intended solely for energy
production, and Khamenei reiterated Thursday that his country would
continue to pursue it to generate some 20,000 megawatts of
electricity in the next two decades.
Washington's push for a third round of U.N. sanctions against
Iran was undermined by the release of a new U.S. intelligence
report in December, saying that Tehran suspended development of
nuclear weapons development under international pressure in 2003.
It was a dramatic turnaround from the previous U.S. stance that
Iran restarted the program in 2005.