By IANS,
Tehran : Iran is open to talks on the nuclear issue with the West but without preconditions, President Mahmoud Ahamedinejad has said, IRNA reported Tuesday.
In a nationally telecast address to the nation Monday, the president said Iran was “ready to hold talks with the entire world countries, save for the Zionist regime (Israel”.
However, “nuclear negotiations need to be held unconditionally”, Ahamedinejad said in his first public statement on the issue, indicating that Tehran will not suspend its enrichment activities.
The US and the European powers have demanded that Iran stop its uranium enrichment activities, which they suspect, are directed to produce an atomic bomb.
Uranium is needed to be enriched at a lower grade for use as fuel in nuclear power plants that Iran is building. But the radioactive metallic element, when enriched to a higher grade, can also be used for making nuclear weapons.
While insisting that the post-election US administration has no option other than entering negotiations with Iran over the issue, he said such talks are to be based on the commonalities of views.
The Iranian president has expressed optimism that relations would improve after the new US administration following the presidential elections takes office.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran’s chief negotiator Saeid Jalili will meet this weekend in Geneva to discuss Iran’s response to an updated package of incentives by the five UN Security Council veto powers and Germany (P5+1).
Iran’s response to the P5+1 package is not yet publicly known and the commonalities of views suggested by Tehran are also not explained by the Islamic countries.
Ahamedinejad said American public opinion, and the world’s, “have realized the righteousness of the Iranians.