Publish Date: 24 October 2012 - 19:19

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says the US is open to having bilateral talks with Iran, but that the two countries have not scheduled any negotiations.

"We have been open to considering negotiations that are bilateral, but we have none scheduled and we have no agreements with the Iranians to do that," Carney told reporters on Tuesday. "There is nothing scheduled. There is no agreement,” he added.

The comments came despite Washington's having blocked the possibility of holding logical negotiations with Tehran by imposing illegal and inhumane sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The US sanctions seek to block Iran’s oil exports and the imports of vital goods, including medicine, to the Islamic Republic. The restrictions place the lives of the patients afflicted with specific diseases, including hepatitis and cancer, at risk by blocking the imports of the medicines needed by them.


In a Saturday report, The New York Times falsely claimed that the US and Iranian officials had agreed to direct bilateral talks over Iran’s nuclear energy program.

The White House later denied such agreement. Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi also rejected the report, saying Tehran is not involved in “any such thing right now.”

In reaction to the report, senior Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi also said that the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei makes the decision for Iran to enter into bilateral negotiations with the US should the Leader deem the measure expedient and added that such a decision has not currently been made.

Some observers in the US believe that the release of such reports at a time when US President Barack Obama keeps up his threat-laden rhetoric against Iran points to the White House’s confusion regarding the Islamic Republic and the country’s scientific progress in the field of nuclear energy.
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