Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Tuesday that accusations leveled recently by certain Egyptian and Iraqi officials against Iran were totally "baseless," and called on these accusers to offer evidence to prove their charges.
"This kind of attitude will only poison the region's atmoshphere,"Kharrazi said, and expressed regret that the Egyptians are playing this role," noted the foreign minister.
Egyptian officials have said Iran helped plan and finance attacks on Egypt and Saudi Arabia over the last year.
As for the second round of talks between officials of Iran and the EU Big 3 (Britain, Germany, France), Kharrazi said "Tehran is willing to cooperate with the EU`s Big 3." Expressing hope that the second phase of talks, which started Monday in Brussels, would proceed seriously, the minister stressed that "Tehran was also against wasting of time and prefers to see the talks come to an end as soon as possible."
Asked if Iran has discussed with US the issue regarding its nuclear programs or whether Washington was tacitly in the E3 talks with Tehran, Kharrazi said: "There was no word of the US joining the talks." "Iran has set certain conditions for talks with the US on the nuclear issue or other issues," Kharrazi said, adding that the conditions were "entering any talks on equal footing based on mutual respect and without Washington imposing its will on the other side."
So far, added the minister, according to IRNA, the US has not given indications it was complying with those conditions and has consistently been imposing its will on others.
The minister added: "If we can hold talks on equal footing based on mutual respect, then there will be no reason to leave the talking to others." However, Kharrazi added, "When the US is even talking about changing the regime in Iran, then there would be no need for negotiations at all."
