Iran's Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, has reiterated Tehran's continued desire to establish diplomatic ties with all countries except the “Zionist regime” (Israel), adding that the US is not yet prepared for resuming ties with the Islamic Republic, Iranian news agency Press TV reports on Sunday.
“It seems that the time for establishing relations with the US has not yet arrived, since the Americans still speak arrogantly with arrogance and the logic of [superior] power,” Salehi told a joint press conference in Tehran on Saturday with the visiting President of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government, Massoud Barzani.
Salehi insisted that Tehran will only engage in negotiations with Washington on an equal footing, expressing optimism that the US will one day follow reason and good sense in its foreign policy, in which case “most of the problems across the globe would be resolved.”
Referring to recent remarks by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Salehi said that the establishment of ties with Washington will only have meaning when the two sides enter talks without preconditions and at an equal level.
