By IANS,
Tehran : Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Thursday congratulated US president-elect Barack Obama on his election victory, the official IRNA news agency reported.
“Mr Barack Obama, the president-elect of the United States of America, I congratulate you for being able to attract the majority of votes in the elections,” Ahmadinejad said in a message addressed to the next president of the US, which has been the arch foe of Iran for decades.
The Iranian leader also hoped that basic and clear changes would take place in Washington’s foreign and domestic policies with the change of guard at the White House.
“As you know the opportunities provided by the Almighty God, which can be used for elevation of nations, or God forbid, for their collapse, are transient,” the message read.
“I hope you will prefer real public interests and justice to the never ending demands of a selfish minority and seize the opportunity to serve people so that you will be remembered with high esteem,” he said.
Ahamadinejad also urged the president-elect to adapt new policies that would advocate “justice, respect for human rights, friendship and non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs”.
“The great nation of Iran welcomes basic and fair changes in US policies and conducts, especially in the region,” President Ahmadinejad said.
Underlining the major conflicts of the time, he said: “It is highly expected to reverse the unfair attitude towards restoring the rights of the Palestinians, Iraqis and Afghans.”
The US had severed diplomatic ties with Iran since the victory of Islamic revolution in Iran when Islamist students seized the US embassy in Tehran and took US diplomats hostage for 444 days Nov 1979.
Washington has been accusing Iran of sponsoring terrorism and developing nuclear weapons under the cover of its controversial nuclear programme. US President George W. Bush has also labelled the Islamic state a part of an “Axis of Evil”.