Larijani: U.S. office in Tehran “sly effort”
Published: Thursday, August 07, 2008
16:48 AM/EST—12:48 PM/EST
LARIJANI-US-IRAN-OFFICE
Washington, August 7, (IranVNC)—Iran’s Majlis [parliament] Speaker Ali Larijani warned yesterday that Iran faces internal and external “soft, hard and cultural threats,” the semi-official ISNA news agency reports.
Speaking in the city of Qom, Iran’s center of Shiite scholarship, Larijani rejected the possibility that the United States might open an interests section in the Islamic Republic, calling it a “sly effort which nobody should accept.”
Larijani’s stance appears to contradict President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s position. The UK’s Guardian Newspaper and other Western media reported in July that Ahmadinejad would look favorably on a U.S. request to open an interests section in Iran.
But in his speech yesterday, Larijani said: “America is pursuing psychological operations in Iran.” He added that Iran, “a complicated nation due to its deep-rooted civilization”, would remain vigilant.
US media reported in July that the Bush administration was considering opening an interests section in Tehran, raising a flurry of speculation on whether Washington was revising its policies for the first since it cut diplomatic ties with Iran after the 1979 hostage crisis.
Asked about the reports, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would not comment on internal government deliberations. But, she added, the U.S. was looking for ways to increase contacts with the Iranian people.
Source: ISNA in Persian
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