25 March 2009

Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani said on Wednesday that US President Barack Obama's "fine words" were not enough to repair the damage of three decades of troubled Tehran-Washington ties.

Obama on March 20 proposed an end to three decades of animosity in a message for the Iranian New Year, in a departure from the tough line adopted by his predecessor George W. Bush.

"Our dispute with the US is not an emotional issue and can not be resolved by congratulatory messages or fine words," Larijani, on a visit to the holy city of Najaf, south of the Iraqi capital, told reporters. "Our dispute has been going on for 30 years," he recalled.

"That country has always opposed the Islamic republic, especially during the eight years of war launched by Saddam Hussein against our country, at the urging of the US," he said, referring to the Iran-Iraq conflict of 1980-1988.

Larijani, who met in Najaf with Iraq's top religious leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Husseini al-Sistani, also criticized Washington's role in Iraq.

"The Iraqis suffered a long time under a tyrant and the Americans should not play this role (of tyrant) now," he said.

On Tuesday, Obama said he expected "steady progress" resolving disputes with Iran after his unprecedented appeal which was recorded on video and posted on the Internet.

"Some people said, 'Well, they did not immediately say that we're eliminating nuclear weapons and stop funding terrorism,'" Obama told a news conference in Washington.

"Well, we didn't expect that. We expect that we're going to make steady progress on this front."

Iranian Nuclear Plant to Start Operations by Year's End

Meanwhile, Iranian Energy Minister Parviz Fattah said Friday Iran would "finish and operate" its Bushehr nuclear plant by year's end. "Iran has chosen a direction for achieving peaceful nuclear energy. We have mainly reached this aim," Fattah said at the World Water Forum.

"Exactly 20 days from now we will have another celebration for celebrating the achievements we have gained for peaceful nuclear energy. You will hear about the news," he said, speaking through an interpreter at a press conference. "Iran will finish and operate the Bushehr nuclear plant by the end of this year."