Iran's presidential hopeful says relations with U.S. not taboo

TEHRAN, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Iran's reformist presidential hopeful Mir-Hossein Mousavi said in a campaign program that "Iran's relations with the United States is not a taboo," the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.

Referring to the change of rhetoric in the U.S. administration, Mousavi said that "If this different literature is put into practice, then the relations with the United States will not be a taboo."

Expressing hope to do the problems between the two counties, he

said, "The United States is a country with which we have had complex and age-old problems. The problems which had reached their

peak prior to (President Barack) Obama's era."

On Friday, Mousavi also said at a press conference that holding

talks with the United States is not a "taboo" for him.

"There is a possibility (for the relations) to become better, but (Iran's) relation with the United States is complicated and it takes time," he said.

He urged the United States to show more positive signs such as ending sanctions and removing obstacles in buying airplanes.

The United States and other Western countries claim that Iran intends to secretly develop nuclear weapons. The UN Security Council also requires Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activity.

Iran, however, insists that its nuclear plan is only for peaceful purposes, vowing to continue its uranium enrichment activity despite pressure and sanctions from Western countries.

Mousavi, who claimed to represent the reformist camp, is a politician, painter and architect, and was prime minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989 under the then President Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

He was the last prime minister of Iran before a change in the constitution which removed the post.

Mousavi and another reformist candidate, former Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi, and former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezaei, a moderate conservative, are vying with the incumbent hard-liner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the next presidency.

The 10th presidential election in Iran is slated for June 12.

Editor: Zhang Pengfei | Source: Xinhua