* Iranian president calls for furthering of diplomatic relations between the two nations
agencies Wednesday, September 24, 2008
NEW YORK: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday justified his policy of confronting the West by saying US troops are surrounding Iran. Interviewed by National Public Radio (NPR) about his stance, Ahmadinejad replied: “I’d like to ask you, is it the Iranian (army) that’s around the territories around the country, or is it the US troops that are around? “It is the US troops around our borders. It is not ours around the American borders. So what exactly are they doing over there?” he asked.
Diplomatic relations: Ahmadinejad said the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency offers “the best guarantee” that Iran can enrich uranium for peaceful uses, and said the United States “should cease putting pressure” on the agency. He also said diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States should advance, citing a willingness to cooperate on security in Iraq. Asked if Iran has a plan to reassure the world it intends to use its nuclear program for peaceful means only, Ahmadinejad said the United States should “extend at least the equivalent of one-tenth the cooperation we have extended” to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. “We believe that the IAEA itself offers the best guarantee,” he added.
During the annual UN General Assembly, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet in New York this week with her counterparts from Britain, Russia, France, China and Germany - the “P5+1” group — to decide how to proceed with Iran. The United States wants to impose new sanctions against Iran, but Russia and China are resisting the move.
Ahmadinejad said it was “the policy approach of the US government that’s been non-responsive and must change. It is not our proposals that are going to fix the problem.” On US-Iranian relations, Ahmadinejad said he has “taken lots of leaps forward in this respect,” adding: “I even said that I am prepared to talk at the United Nations with them.” He also said Iran “responded positively” to Washington’s request “to extend a hand of cooperation in a joint security commission involved in upholding a security force for Iraq. So we did whatever we could.”
Ahmadinejad compared his proposal for a Palestinian referendum on the future of Israel, West Bank and Gaza Strip to the end of the Soviet Union. “Let me create an analogy here - where exactly is the Soviet Union today? It did disappear - but exactly how? It was through the vote of its own people. So therefore in Palestine too we must allow the people, the Palestinians, to determine their own future,” he said.
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