Judiciary chief describes Rouhani’s speech as new opportunity for US

Iranian Judiciary Chief Sadeq Amoli Larijani hailed President Hassan Rouhani’s address to the UN General Assembly in the early hours of Wednesday, describing it as a new opportunity for the US to build the confidence of the Iranians. President Rouhani said in his address to the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly that Iran is ready for talks with the US, but “on equal footing and with mutual respect”, yet he said he is not hearing a single voice from Washington. “The Iranian nation has once again given an opportunity to Obama and the American statesmen to enable them build the Iranian nation’s confidence,” Amoli Larijani said. The Iranian judiciary chief underlined that Iran would welcome negotiations in case of mutual respect and under fair conditions “Holding talks and having relations with other countries is not inherently forbidden and what has delayed or prevented such negotiation is the lack of confidence in the honesty of words and behavior of the Westerners, specially the Americans,” Amoli Larijani said. Before leaving Tehran, Rouhani met with Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei for final discussions and receiving the Leader's final guidelines. The Iranian president was invited by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in August to take part in the annual UN General Assembly meeting. But what has made this visit an exceptional development is the high chance of talks between Iran and the US, as two long-time arch foes, during Rouhani's visit to New York. The United States and Iran broke diplomatic relations in April 1980, after Iranian students seized the United States' espionage center at its embassy in Tehran. The two countries have had tense relations ever since, but have shown willingness to attend talks to help resolve regional issues, including security in Iraq. Yet, the two countries have avoided talks on bilateral issues for the last thirty years. Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.