Iran rejects report on Khatami's letter to US secretary of state
Tehran, Aug 7, IRNA -- Iran on Thursday rejected a press report on
President Mohammad Khatami's alleged letter to US Secretary of State
Colin Powell, asking the two countries to continue their secret and
direct talks in Geneva.
The Saudi newspaper Al Watan on Wednesday quoted unnamed
European diplomats as saying that President Khatami in a letter to
Powell had called for formally direct and secret talks between
Tehran and Washington to continue.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi stressed that "no
letter has ever been written to any American official by Mr.
Khatami."
"The Islamic Republic of Iran does not need to establish
clandestine relations with any country and it defines its ties with
other countries in a transparent way according to national interests
and legal decisions," he said.
"Over the past years, there have been formal channels to arrange
relations and Iran has passed its views through these official and
legal channels to its opposing sides," Asefi added.
The official also reiterated Iran's resolve to confront any
individual and group found to be linked to Al Qaeda, which Washington
accuses of masterminding terror attacks on American landmarks on Sept
11, 2001.
"Iran has always announced that it is the biggest victim of
terrorism and it will continue to confront the terrorist Al Qaeda
group and that it does not need the advice of foreign governments in
this regard," Asefi said.
Tehran says it has arrested about 500 foreigners on suspicion of
links to Al Qaeda so far, with some of them extradited to their
country of origin.
On Monday, a government spokesman denied reports that Tehran
sought to swap with the United States some of the detained Al Qaeda
members with senior elements of terrorist opposition Mujahedin Khalq
Organization.
"Such a proposal has never been made by the Iranian government,"
Abdollah Remezanzadeh said, adding "we do not make a deal nor act
selectively in fighting terrorism.
"In our view, fighting terrorism must be put on the agenda of all
the world governments and there must be no exception about that; nor
any deal must be made on terrorists," he said.
Asked whether press reports on Washington's demand on Tehran to
extradite detained Al Qaeda members to that country were true, the
spokesman said, "I am really uninformed about details in this regard
and I am not commenting on that; the government either has not
discussed such matters."
"We have no agreement with the American government for the
extradition of criminals and I don't know if America has really made
such a request or not."
Ramezanzadeh said security considerations needed that it did not
reveal the names of an unspecified number of foreigners, held in
custody because of their suspected links to Al Qaeda.
"As it regards the country's security, we do not see it advisable
to announce the names of these individuals," he said.
BH/213
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