Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has proposed launching a debate with U.S. leader Barack Obama on global issues, but does not seek direct negotiations with Washington, an Iranian official said on Monday.
"Iran's president wants to open a debate with Obama not on insignificant issues but on justice of the world and public diplomacy," Iranian Foreign Minister's advisor Manouchehr Mohammadi was quoted by the Fars news agency as saying.
However, Mohammadi said direct negotiations between the countries, which have not had diplomatic relations since 1980, would be impossible without the approval of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Friday, Ahmadinejad called for more talks on the controversy surrounding the Iranian nuclear program, and said his country will not give in to threats on the issue.
"Today, the only tool in the hands of our enemies is to wage a psychological war and raise a hue and cry. But they know very well that threats will have no impact on the Iranian nation," he said.
However, he said Iran welcomes "talks and interaction."
The United States on Friday reiterated its call for Iran to respond to an UN-backed draft deal over its nuclear program.
Iran has yet to give an official answer to the draft, designed to allay concerns over its nuclear program, which Western powers suspect of being aimed at the production of an atomic weapon. Iran says the program is for the peaceful generation of energy.
Under the deal, drawn up during October talks in Vienna between Iran, the UN, the U.S., Russia and France, the Islamic Republic would ship out its low-enriched uranium to Russia, where it would be enriched and then sent to France to prepare it for use in an Iranian reactor.
However, Iran refused to send its nuclear fuel to France and Russia, and the U.S. proposed allowing Tehran to send its uranium to any of several nations, including Turkey.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a report on Monday that Iran's lateness in admitting to a second uranium enrichment site raises concerns that it may be hiding further information on nuclear facilities.
Iran admitted to the existence of an enrichment site near the city of Qom in September, and IAEA inspectors who were granted access to the facility the following month said construction was at an advanced stage.
MOSCOW, November 23 (RIA Novosti)
