IRAN'S foreign minister welcomed the United States' willingness to hold direct talks with Tehran in the standoff over its nuclear program but didn't commit to accepting the offer - insisting that Washington must show "fair and real" intentions to resolve the issue and complaining about "threatening rhetoric."
Ali Akbar Salehi on Sunday insisted that no Iranian "red line" is getting in the way of direct negotiations with Washington, but also pointed to deep mistrust between the two countries.
Salehi was speaking at the Munich Security Conference where US Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday said the United States was prepared talk directly to Iran.
Biden insisted that Tehran must show it is serious and that Washington won't engage in such talks merely "for the exercise".
Washington has indicated in the past that it's prepared to talk directly with Iran on the nuclear issue, but so far nothing has come of it.
Salehi also welcomed Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib's readiness to hold talks under conditions with the Syrian regime.
"It's a good step forward," Salehi said, adding he had held a "very good meeting" with Khatib.
Meanwhile, talks involving all five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany have made little headway, while several rounds of international sanctions have cut into Iran's oil sales and financial transactions.
The next round of talks with the six powers will be held on February 25 in Kazakhstan, Salehi told the Munich Security Conference.
He said Biden's comments marked "a step forward," but indicated getting the US and Iran together for one-to-one talks will be no easy task.
"We have no red line for bilateral negotiations when it comes to negotiating over a particular subject," Salehi said.
"If the subject is the nuclear file, yes, we are ready for negotiations but we have to make sure ... that the other side this time comes with authentic intention, with a fair and real intention to resolve the issue."
Salehi said it was "contradictory" if the US voices willingness to hold direct talks "but on the other side you use this threatening rhetoric that everything is on the table ... these are not compatible with each other."
"We are ready for engagement only when it is on equal footing," he said.
Iran insists it does not want nuclear arms and argues it has a right to enrich uranium for a civilian nuclear power program, but suspicion persists that the real aim is to build an atomic bomb.
Last month Iran, in a defiant move, announced plans to vastly increase its pace of uranium enrichment. That can be used to make both reactor fuel and the fissile core of warheads.
Earlier in the conference, Biden called for a bolstering in transatlantic ties, insisting Europe is still "the cornerstone" of US international engagement.
Addressing high-ranking officials, ministers and top military brass on the second day of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Biden sought to dispel fears that the US had moved its focus away from Europe.
"President (Barack) Obama and I continue to believe that Europe is the cornerstone of our engagement with the rest of the world and is the catalyst for our global co-operation," he said.
"It's that basic. Nothing has changed."
But Biden urged Europe to step up its co-operation with the US in the Asia-Pacific region.
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