Iran's supreme leader has said he sees no change in US policy towards the Islamic Republic, a day after US President Barack Obama issued an unprecedented videotaped appeal to the country.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sharply criticised US behaviour towards Iran since its 1979 Islamic revolution and said the US was ‘hated in the world’ and should stop interfering in other countries' internal affairs.
‘They give the slogan of change but in practice no change is seen ... We haven't seen any change,’ Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised speech to mark the Iranian New Year.
Ayatollah Khamenei said a change of US ‘words’ was not enough and added: ‘We will watch and we will judge (the new US administration) ... You change, our behaviour will change.’
The White House says it has more steps planned to entice Iran to engage in dialogue after President Obama offered a ‘new beginning’ to turn back the tide on decades of mutual animosity.
Mr Obama's historic online video message marking the Iranian New Year Nowruz was the latest step in an emerging diplomatic strategy designed to prod Iran to the negotiating table or bring consequences to bear if it refuses.
Asked whether the White House hoped the message would launch an ongoing dialogue with Iran, as Washington and its allies try to halt Tehran's nuclear program, the president's spokesman Robert Gibbs said ‘obviously, there will need to be some evaluation overall with our policies.’
But The New York Times reported, citing unnamed officials and diplomats, that among other measures being weighed by the administration are a direct communication from President Obama to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, and an end to a prohibition on direct contacts between junior US diplomats and their Iranian counterparts around the world.
President Obama's appeal urged an end to decades of animosity and offered ‘honest’ engagement with the Islamic republic.
In a decisive break with his predecessor George W Bush, President Obama called Nowruz celebrations a time of ‘new beginnings’ and said Iran could take its "rightful place" in the world if it renounced terror and embraced peace.
