Unfreeze our money and we'll talk
Iran's Rafsanjani tells US
AFP, Tehran
Iran will agree to renew dialogue with arch-foe Washington if it releases Iranian assets frozen since the Islamic revolution, presidential frontrunner Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was quoted as saying Wednesday. "As I have said before, a goodwill gesture on the part of the United States would be for them to unblock our assets," the top Shiite cleric said in an interview with the hardline Jomhuri Islami newspaper. "If such a gesture was made, we could enter into negotiations. This has been my position and I still think the same way," the 70-year-old Rafsanjani said. Iran and the United States cut off relations in 1980, a year after the revolution, and Iranian assets in the US were frozen. Rafsanjani has previously said the figure is at least eight billion dollars plus interest. "The United States has still not responded. But if they do respond, I will speak to the guide (supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) and we can start to negotiate," Rafsanjani said. The charismatic politician, who has already served as Iran's president from 1989 to 1997, is campaigning for a comeback on a platform of closer engagement with the international community and moving away from hardline revolutionary values.
| 
