Iran rejects Barack Obama's hand of friendship

[Antaletriangle]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...riendship.html

Iran has rejected US President Barack Obama's offer of a "new beginning" in diplomatic relations between the two countries.

By Colin Freeman
Last Updated: 8:53AM GMT 21 Mar 2009

The country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made a speech on Saturday morning saying that Tehran detected no change in US policies towards his government.

“They give the slogan of change but in practice no change is seen,” said Mr Khamenei in a televised address to mark Iranian New Year. “We haven’t seen any change.” He added that the US was “hated in the world” and should stop meddling in other nation’s internal affairs.



Barack Obama plans to make US relationship with Britain less special than beforeMr Khamenei’s brush-off to Mr Obaba came a day after the new US president issued an unprecedented videotaped message to Iranians aired on YouTube in which he offered to end their three decade-long stand-off.

In a dramatic reversal of White House policy, the president announced that America was determined to pursue “constructive ties” with its former arch enemy. He also pledged that Tehran could take its “rightful place” in the international community if it renounced terror in favour of peace.

But Mr Khamenei said a change of US “words” was not enough, Speaking to an audience of tens of thousands of people in the north-eastern city of Mashhad, he added: “We will watch and we will judge (the new U.S. administration) ... You change, our behaviour will change.”

In contrast to his predecessor George W Bush, who famously put Iran on a so-called “Axis of Evil” along with Syria and North Korea, Mr Obama wants to adopt a more conciliatory approach.

He is seeking to draw Tehran in from the diplomatic wilderness by recognising it as a pivotal player on many of America’s most delicate foreign policy fronts. These include dealing with a resurgent Taliban; disbanding the US military from Iraq, and addressing Israeli-Arab tensions in the Middle East.

But the key sticking point remains Iran’s disputed nuclear research programme, which Tehran insists is for civil energy use purposes, but which the West suspects is for an atomic bomb.

So far, Mr Obama has offered no real change on the US’s existing position that the research should not go ahead: White House insiders say the new president is horrified at the idea of a nuclear-armed Iran happening “on his watch”. Tehran insists that until the US recognises its right to continue the research, there is relatively little of substance to talk about on the diplomatic front.