Iran criticises US offensive comments on Iranians

Iran's Foreign Ministry criticized recent "offensive" comments by the U.S. undersecretary of State for political affairs, Wendy Sherman, about Iranians, Press TV reported on Wednesday. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said Tuesday that the U.S. official's remarks "not only run counter to the principle of mutual respect, but indicate Sherman's lack of knowledge about the Iranian nation." According to western media reports, Sherman said of the Iranians at a meeting with U.S. senators over Iran's nuclear issue on October 3 that "we know that deception is part of the DNA." It is "resistance against any form of bullying" that is part of the Iranians' DNA, Afkham was quoted as saying. On Tuesday, spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran's Majlis (parliament), Hossein Naqavi- Hosseini, criticized Sherman's remarks saying that "The repetition of such rhetoric by the U.S. officials will lead to the Iranian nation and government's distrust of the United States." On Tuesday, Esmail Kowsari, another lawmaker in the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Majlis, reacted to the comments, saying that the parliament demands a serious and practical response to Sherman's "rude remarks," the pro- conservative Tasnimn news agency reported. "Such comments prove that we should keep following the remarks of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who said several times that it is not possible to trust the Americans. Such comments by the U.S. officials vindicate the sense of mistrust of the Iranian nation toward the West, especially the United States," Kowsari was quoted as saying. Iran and the P5+1 countries, the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany, held a fresh round of talks in Geneva on October 15-16, and agreed to meet again in Geneva on Nov. 7-8. Most of the P5+1 countries, including the United States, hailed Iran's tone in the talks and expressed optimism toward the next meetings.