TEHRAN, 12 August 2004 — Iran is not opposed to resuming talks with arch-foe Washington in future, provided US officials stop trying to topple the Islamic Republic, President Mohammad Khatami said yesterday.

Washington broke off a tentative dialogue with Iranian officials over Iraq and Afghanistan in May 2003 after accusing Tehran of harboring Al Qaeda members involved in attacks in Saudi Arabia.

Iran denies assisting Al Qaeda as well as a host of other US accusations including developing nuclear weapons and stirring up violence in Iraq. “If the Americans say the Iranian system should be changed then that is flagrant interference in our affairs,” Khatami told reporters.

“But if America changes its direction and does not want to impose its demands on us and proves its good will, then why shouldn’t our nation sit down and talk with it?”

Unlike the European Union which has adopted a policy of “critical engagement” with Iran’s reformist government, Washington has preferred to isolate Tehran with which it broke diplomatic ties in 1980.

President George W. Bush has instead sought to reach out to the Iranian people, saying his government supports their aspirations for freedom and democracy.

“The key is in America’s hands,” Khatami said. “Our nation will not yield to this master and servant attitude. ... (But) we don’t have enmity against anyone forever. If our interests necessitate it we can adopt another policy,” he said.

Meanwhile, state-organized demonstrations are to be held throughout Iran against attacks by allied forces on holy sites in south Iraq, the students’ news agency ISNA reported. The Islamic Propagation Office said that the rallies are scheduled to be held after mass prayer ceremonies tomorrow.

The shrines of the two Shiite Imams Ali and Hussein are located in the two holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in southern Iraq and are considered as two of the most sacred sites for Shiite Moslems in Iran.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday harshly condemned the actions by US forces in Najaf and warned that neither the Iraqi nation nor the Islamic world would forget the alleged violation of Islamic sanctities.

“Is this the way of the United States and its president to create democracy in Iraq or rather a way to deprive the Iraqi people of their right for democracy,” Khamenei said on state television.

In another development, a foreign national arrested in southeast Iran is probably from Bangladesh and not the United States as reported earlier, an Interior Ministry spokesman told ISNA yesterday.

The ministry in Teheran had confirmed the arrest of a foreigner along the border with Pakistan, but said it could not be certain of the nationality. The arrest occurred Tuesday, the spokesman said.

“He is probably from Bangladesh but introduced himself as a US citizen but we are still trying to clarify his real nationality,” he said. The man was identified by news website Baztab in Farsi letters as “Arminster”, age 32. The website reported he was Jewish and worked in a special field of chemistry.

The man reportedly entered Iran illegally from Pakistan and was returning to Pakistan when arrested by border guards in Sistan-Balochistan province.