Mottaki: US stance on Iran hostile, Obama should revise

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Sunday that the US stance in the past 30 years against Iran was hostile and advised US President-elect Barack Obama to revise White House's international and regional policies including those pertaining to Iran.

Mottaki also backed the letter sent by President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad to Barack Obama congratulating him on his election and said the move is not regarded as deviation from the right path of late Imam Khomeini.

Criticizing the latest stance of the ruler of Abu Dhabi (UAE) about three Iranian islands, he advised them not to turn into a platform for US or Britain in the region.

On the three Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf, he said Iran will never yield even one iota of its legitimate rights.

On Iran's peaceful nuclear activities, he said the issue is regarded as the red line for the ninth government and will never give up these legitimate rights.

Iran's former President Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Tuesday dismissed the US' carrot and stick policy in connection with Tehran's peaceful nuclear program.

"Iranian nation and government neither want the US incentives nor sanctions because they (the tactics) will prevent the country treading the path to peaceful use of nuclear energy and science," said Ayatollah Rafsanjani in his sermons to Eid Qurban (Feast of Sacrifice) congregational prayers in reaction to the US

President-elect Barack Obama's recent Iran remarks.

In an interview broadcast on Sunday, Obama vowed "tough but direct diplomacy" with Iran, offering incentives along with the threat of tougher sanctions over its peaceful nuclear program.

Iran has properly responded to US psychological warfare in due course and now they understood that if they dare take any action against the country, they will be given a crushing response, Mottaki said.

Following the historical lecture of Iranian president at Colombia University, many diplomats and heads of states along with US intellectuals as well professors at Colombia's university described the move as a victory for the Islamic Republic of Iran, he pointed out.

On US presidential election, he said it provided a chance for the US to change its outlook and repair its defeated image, he said adding that Obama is now considered as the US last chance to this end.

Regarding the opening of US interest section in Tehran, he said the issue has been regarded as a media campaign and the response has been given on the same track.