Former Iranian president and Tehran's substitute Friday prayers leader Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said "negotiation without pre-condition" is the best way to solve problems and urged the US to choose this best way.
Addressing thousands of worshipers at Tehran University Campus, Ayatollah Rafsanjani said, "Iran is always ready for negotiations and the US should retract its humiliating and unacceptable preconditions." He added the Islamic Republic of Iran has a positive role in resolving regional problems and the important region of the Middle East should no longer be in turmoil.
"If the Middle East is in trouble, many other countries and especially, industrial countries will be in trouble, too," the Ayatollah said.
Noting that the US exaggerates Iran's nuclear issue and slanders Tehran in this regard, Rafsanjani said, "Although inspectors have been coming to Iran for years and have inspected wherever they have wished, they have not been able to prove one single claim on Iran deviation from peaceful use of nuclear energy."
Stressing that the US is intervening in Iraq with 150,000 troopers, Ayatollah Rafsanjani said," Up to now, the Americans have not shown good signs in the talks and have accused Iran of intervening in Iraq."
Rafsanjani said,"The US occupied Iraq and Afghanistan with the purpose of pressurizing and surrounding Iran," adding they had not known these countries well and very soon it was known that the US has been surrounded by Iran instead of being able to surround Iran.
© 2007 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
