Salehi sees Biden's offer as change of U.S. approach to Iran

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Monday, February 4 he saw U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden's offer this weekend of bilateral dialogue between their two countries as a sign of a change in approach to Iran by the U.S. administration, according to Reuters.

"As I have said yesterday, I am optimistic, I feel this new administration is really this time seeking to at least divert from its previous traditional approach vis-a-vis my country," Salehi told the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin.

Tehran insists its nuclear program is peaceful but the West suspects it is intended to give Iran the capability to build a nuclear bomb.

Salehi, who attended the Munich Security Conference at the weekend where Biden made the offer, said in Berlin that it was still very difficult for Tehran and Washington to trust each other. "How do we trust again this new gesture?" he said.

Salehi said he hoped Barack Obama would keep what he said was a promise by the U.S. president to "walk away from wars...and approaches that bring destruction, killings, bloodshed". He did not elaborate.

Negotiations between Iran and six major world powers - Russia, China, the United States, Britain, France and Germany - over Tehran's nuclear activities have been deadlocked since a meeting last June.

European Union officials have accused Iran of dragging its feet in weeks of haggling over the date and venue for new talks.

The EU said this weekend it had proposed talks in the week of February 24 which could happen in Kazakhstan. Salehi called this "good news" - but the EU says Iran has not yet accepted.