Iran denies its foreign minister proposed talks with U.S.

TEHRAN,June 15(MNA) – Iran has denied a report published by Reuters claiming that the country’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi had proposed wide-ranging talks with Washington. On Wednesday, Reuters said that five months ago the Iranian foreign minister sent a letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to enter into “broad discussions with the United States.” Later on the day, however, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi dismissed the report as “baseless,” saying that it is not the first time that the West has come up with such stories to divert the public opinion. Araqhi called such allegations a kind of “story-telling” just ahead of the presidential election in Iran. The Iranians voted on Friday to elect the successor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was constitutionally barred from running in the election for a third time. Tehran and Washington severed their diplomatic relations more than three decades ago and are currently at odds over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Iran says its nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes.