Last update - 00:00 03/01/2008
Iran's supreme chief says would okay future relations with U.S.
By News Agencies
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday that he would approve the restoration of relations between his country and its archenemy the United States if those relations were to serve the interests of the Islamic country.
"But for now that was not the case, and the issue of restoring the ties, severed in 1979, should not be pursued," the top Iranian cleric said.
"I would be the first one to support these relations," state radio quoted Khamenei as saying at a student group meeting in the central Iranian province of Yazd.
Khamenei, who has final say in all state matters, said he would give the approval if he deemed the relations, severed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the U.S. Embassy takeover by militants in Tehran, would be beneficial.
"We never said the severed relations were forever," added Khamenei. "But for the time being, it [restoring ties] is harmful and we should not pursue it."
"Resuming ties under present circumstances would endanger Iran's security as it would provide opportunity for security agents to come and go, as well as for espionage," he said. "It has no benefit for Iranian nation."
The cleric attributed the fact that Iran-U.S. relations have been frozen for almost 30 years to the allegedly hostile U.S. policies against Iran.
"The hostility by the U.S. has existed, since the [Islamic] Revolution," he said.
Khamenei has become increasingly outspoken in state media ahead of the March 14 parliament elections. There has also been more criticism of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by both moderate conservatives and reformists ahead of the crucial vote.
On Wednesday, also in Yazd, Khamenei urged would-be candidates in the elections and their supporters to abstain from smearing rivals' reputation during campaigning.
It can be seen as an effort by the top Ayatollah to subdue critical and outspoken voices ahead of the campaign. Candidates are to start registering candidates for the polling on Saturday while the actual campaigning begins a week before the voting day.
The elections are expected to be a key test of Ahmadinejad's hold on power and also a key indicator for the 2009 presidential vote.
Washington has refused to hold talks with Iran - that could tackle also the issue of diplomatic ties - until Tehran suspends its controversial uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to produce fuel for both nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.
But the two archenemies have held three rounds of ambassador-level of negotiations over Iraq, which broke the 27-year diplomatic freeze.
Iran has insisted its nuclear program is intended for energy production and not for weapons' development, as claimed by the U.S. and its allies.
Khamenei reiterated Thursday that his country would continue its peaceful nuclear program to generate some 20,000 mega watts of electricity in the next two decades.
U.S. efforts to push for a third round of U.N. sanctions against Tehran over the enrichment were undermined by the release of a new U.S. intelligence report in December that said Iran suspended nuclear weapons' development under international pressure in 2003 and had not resumed it since, a dramatic turnaround from the previous stance that said Iran restarted the program in 2005.