Iran Slams US Remark on Washington-Tehran TiesIran has rebuffed a recent US remark on their long-broken ties, saying that the impetus for improving relations should come "from Washington and not Tehran."A statement was made by Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi in response to the remark by US Secretary of State Colin Powell that "better ties depend on Iran." Powell on Friday told reporters that reformist elements in Iran have "not yet produced a situation where it would be appropriate to not go forward with the 1996 Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA)." In August 1996 Washington imposed the ILSA on punishment against foreign investment in Iran and Libya. Since the act is going to expire, a powerful pro-Israeli lobby is pressing for another full five-year extension of the controversial legislation. Asefi denounced that Powell "on the one hand encourages Iran to take the first step for better ties and, on the other, reaffirms extension of American sanctions against Iran." "Iranian officials have on many occasions reiterated that the US which has caused a mistrust between the two countries should take the first step and prove its goodwill," he said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency. "The Islamic republic is among the most independent states and draws up its foreign policy in a bid to serve its national interests," he said, stressing that "Iran has always moved in line with its detente policy and will continue to follow up the same policy ... based on its national interests." Iran and the US cut off relations in 1980 after radical students seized the US embassy in Tehran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Washington has since adopted a hostile policy against Tehran and imposed sanctions on it. |
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