Iran wants West to resume 'interaction'

Iranian government spokesman: World powers would be "better" to revise nuclear sanctions policy.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Iranian nuclear technicians 248.88 ap (photo credit: AP [file])
Iranian nuclear technicians 248.88 ap
(photo credit: AP [file])
Iran wants the West to change its nuclear policy of sanctions and resume "interaction" with the Persian nation, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi said on Monday. Qashqavi said it's "better" that world powers make an "essential revision" in nuclear policy now that Iran is about to get a new government after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election. Qashqavi did not say what that revision should entail, but noted that new sanctions on Iran "cannot stop us from achieving our nuclear rights." The comments came as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was set to tell his counterparts in Britain and Germany during his meetings there this week that the stronger the sanctions that are imposed on Teheran now, the less likely there will be a need for "nondiplomatic" action later. The prime minister left Monday for a four-day, two-country European trip, during which he will meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, US special Mideast envoy George Mitchell, and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel. Prior to the trip, government officials said Iran would obviously be a major component of Netanyahu's discussions. One official said that since the Iranian elections in June and the bloody aftermath, there was now "greater understanding in the international community as to the character of the Iranian regime," and therefore a "greater appetite to place pressure on that regime to" halt its march toward nuclear weapons. Herb Keinon contributed to this report