JAKARTA, 12 May 2006 — Iran’s president said yesterday he was ready to negotiate with the United States and its allies over his country’s nuclear program but also suggested that any threats against Tehran would make dialogue more difficult.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also intensified his verbal attacks on Israel, calling it a “a tyrannical regime that one day will be destroyed.”
The Iranian leader made his remarks to cheering students and in a television interview during a visit to the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation amid a deepening standoff with the West over Tehran’s nuclear program and suspicions it is seeking atomic weapons.
Asked what it would take to begin talks with the United States to resolve the standoff, Ahmadinejad told Metro TV that Iran “is ready to engage in dialogue with anybody.”
“There are no limits to our dialogue,” Ahmadinejad told the station. “But if someone points a weapon at your face and says you must speak, will you do that?”
Key UN Security Council members agreed Tuesday to postpone a resolution that would have delivered an ultimatum to Tehran, giving Iran another two weeks to re-evaluate its insistence on developing its uranium enrichment capabilities.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said yesterday his country had not offered to mediate in Iran nuclear talks. The minister’s remarks came after a spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Wednesday that Jakarta was ready to play a mediating role to help solve the dispute. “We did not claim that we offer mediation on Iran’s nuclear issue,” Wirayuda told a news conference after a meeting of foreign ministers from the so-called Developing 8 (D-8) group of Muslim countries.
