“We expect the US government to deal with Iran based on a realistic policy and talk to the great Iranian nation with [a language of] respect,” Afkham said during her weekly press conference in the Iranian capital on Tuesday.
She made the remark in response to a question about US President Barack Obama’s recent comment repeating the threat of military force against Iran.
Obama said in a Monday meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington that the United States would not take any options, “including military option,” off the table in its dealings with Iran.
The American president’s comments came despite recently improved prospects for Iran and the US to settle the Western dispute over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program.
In the first direct communication between an Iranian and a US president since Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran held a telephone conversation with Obama on September 27 shortly before leaving New York.
During their telephone conversation, Obama and Rouhani stressed Tehran and Washington’s political will to swiftly resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear energy program, which the United States, Israel and some of their allies falsely claim to include non-civilian components.
However, in his meeting with Netanyahu, Obama said Washington will enter negotiations with Tehran with a “clear eye” and emphasized that it will be in “close consultation” with Israel and other friends and allies in the region during the process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman stated, “In our viewpoint, the United States is today facing a major test and it remains to be seen how far it will resist the pressure of war mongers.”
Afkham added that the possibility of Iran’s constructive interaction with the United States will be considered if Washington resists pressures from the war mongers.
The Iranian official added that the Tel Aviv regime will continue pressuring the US due to Israel’s growing isolation and its anger over the fact that the Iranian administration’s policies have been welcomed at the international level.
Following the landmark conversation between Rouhani and Obama, Netanyahu called on Washington and the international community to increase pressure on Iran.
Israeli claims about alleged spy
Afkham further rejected the Israeli regime’s recent claims about an Iranian-Belgian national spying on Israel for the Islamic Republic and said, “What is certain is that such scenarios and desperate efforts by the Zionist regime (Israel) are made out of outrage.”
“We saw that media and analysts in different parts of the world regarded the concurrence of [Israel’s] announcement of the arrest of a spy with the trip of the Zionist regime’s prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) to the US as a kind of plan to exit isolation,” she said.
Bahraini FM comments on Hezbollah leader
Reacting to recently reported remarks attributed to Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed Al Khalifa about Hezbollah Secretary-General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, Afkham described the comments as “very surprising” if they have been “accurately published.”
“Such statements constitute a kind of convergence in discourse with the Zionist regime and their utterance by an authority of a Muslim country about a well-known Lebanese official, who is supported by Muslims and regional countries, is a form of spreading state terrorism,” she said, urging the reaction of Bahraini officials to the reports.
Iran-Argentina MoU
She also responded to a question regarding a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Iran and Argentina to probe the bombing at the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) in 1994.
Afkham pointed to the meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Argentinean counterpart Hector Timerman on the sidelines of the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York and said the two sides have agreed to hold a meeting in Geneva in October in an effort to put the MoU into practice.
SHI/SHI