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3 November 2012 - 19:21

A senior Iranian legislator lashed out at the US for its hostile policies towards Iran, and stressed that Tehran is not interested in talks with the US, given Washington's long history of hostility towards Iran.

Commenting on the likelihood of negotiations between Iran and the US, member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mehdi Sanayee said on Friday that negotiating with the US is not among the policies of the Islamic Republic.

He added that major objectives of Tehran's foreign policy will be determined by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.

He said considering the hostile policies that the hegemonic system has adopted against the Iranian nation, "it is the US which has to build confidence".

"Throughout the history, the US has always jeopardized our interests and adopted antagonistic policies, the August 19 (1953) coup d'état being an example of such hostility," he added.

The Washington-sponsored coup d'état toppled the democratically-elected government of Iran's Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq.

Iran categorically denied media reports about Iranian and US officials' direct talks, and stressed that such claims are aimed at influencing the results of the upcoming US presidential elections.

In one of the strangest articles on the relations between the US and Iran, the New York Times reported on October 20 that Washington and Tehran had reached an agreement to hold one-on-one negotiations.

The sources that provided the story, according to the newspaper, were "Obama administration officials." They added that Iran only insisted that the proposed negotiations be held after the US elections.

Later Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi dismissed the report stressing that there would be no talks between the two countries.

"We do not have anything called negotiations with the US," Salehi said.

Also, the French daily Le Monde had reported earlier that Iranian and American diplomats have been meeting for talks in recent years, predominantly in Switzerland. The report added that Robert Enron, a US official who had offered an exchange of enriched uranium with Iran, has had several meetings with Supreme Leader's Top Advisor for International Affairs Ali Akbar Velayati.

In an interview with the Mashregh website, Velayati strongly rejected the claim, saying, "As far as I am aware of the government's decisions, there are no direct talks with America."

Velayati told Mashregh, "Our logic vis-à-vis the United States is clear: They say our nuclear activities are not peaceful but we will not cave in to their demands because even if we temporarily forgo our right (to uranium enrichment), they will find another excuse."

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News ID 183254