Confusion -- what confusion?

The US continues to play games with Iran, while Europe continues to try to keep things calm, Rasha Saad reports

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In a bold attempt to break the war of nerves between Iran and the West, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a live speech on state TV on Monday, "we will hold talks with the United States if they come to us on equal footing." He added such talks could happen "in the near future".

"Equal footing means that when two people want to talk, both have to be on equal terms. Dialogue doesn't make any sense if one side stands in a higher position and the other in a lower position," Ahmadinejad said. There was no reaction from Washington, and the Iranian president did not say whether any definite plans for such bilateral talks were under way.

Ahmadinejad also said he will attend the next United Nations General Assembly in New York in September in order to defend Iran's rights and propose changes to what he called the "unjust" Western system of administering international organisations. Ahmadinejad has attended every annual UN General Assembly meeting since he was elected in 2005.

Recognising Tehran's influence in the region, officials from both Iran and the US have met in recent years on limited regional issues including Afghanistan and Iraq. Both sides denied they touched on bilateral relations.

The US has said it will not talk with Iran about its disputed nuclear programme unless Tehran agrees first to halt uranium enrichment -- a process that can be used to generate electricity, or make a nuclear bomb. This ultimatum hardly seems to meet Ahmadinejad's proposal for "equal footing" and US President George W Bush has repeatedly refused to meet with Ahmadinejad.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- who repeatedly rejected such talks in the past -- has also softened his tone in recent months. In January, Khamenei said Iran's relationship with the United States might not be severed forever. He said he would be the first to support resuming diplomatic ties with Washington, but that doing so now would be "harmful" to Iran's interests.

While Ahmadinejad's words are a reiteration to what Iranian officials have said in recent years, the timing is significant. Ahmadinejad's statements come after a significant escalation in the war of words between Washington and Tehran. In this context they are regarded as an attempt to pour some water on crackling fire of words.

Meanwhile, Iran's top nuclear negotiator Said Jalili and EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana will meet on Saturday to discuss a timetable for future negotiations to break the deadlock in the atomic crisis. "In these talks [between Jalili and Solana] the framework of talks and timetable of talks" will be discussed, President Ahmadinejad said in an interview with state television. Pressed about the length of the timetable, Ahmadinejad said it did not matter whether it lasted for four weeks, six weeks or eight weeks.

Media reports say Iran has been offered "pre- negotiations" over a six-week period during which Tehran would add no more uranium-enriching centrifuges in return for no further sanctions. "The agenda of the talks includes the topic of future talks, a timetable, how the decision in each phase is taken and the negotiating partners," Ahmadinejad said.

Solana last month presented on behalf of world powers a package that aimed to end the nuclear crisis, offering Tehran technological incentives if it suspended sensitive uranium enrichment operations. Ahmadinejad and other Iranian leaders have repeatedly vowed that Tehran will never suspend enrichment as demanded by world powers.

Insisting on the need for a conciliatory tone, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said negotiations, not threats, were the only way to resolve the dispute. "Overall we are in favour of any problems which are linked to Iran being resolved through negotiations, political and diplomatic methods, by bringing Iran into a mutually respectful and concrete dialogue," Lavrov said.

"Not through threats that are voiced periodically that 'force will be used so that, once and for all, all the problems are resolved.' That will not work. We take the view that these proposals are comprehensive enough, deep enough, contain enough positive stimuli that it will be possible, as a result of these talks, to create the conditions for subsequent negotiations," Lavrov said.

Clearly in response to threats from both the US and Israel to launch air strikes on Iran, last Wednesday and Thursday Tehran tested several missiles. The naval section of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards test-fired shore-to-sea, surface-to- surface and sea-to-air missiles in the Gulf, state television said. Tehran said nine missiles in total were fired on Wednesday, including the Shahab-3 long- range missile, advertised as having a 2,000 kilometre range, which would put Israel and US military installations throughout the Middle East within striking distance.

Washington called the tests "provocative" and said they violated UN Security Council resolutions. "We want to see them stop enriching uranium and we'd like to see them stop these provocative tests that only further isolate the Iranian people," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.

Unphased, an aide to Khamenei warned that Iran would "set fire" to Israel and US ships in the Gulf if attacked. "If America and Israel shoot any bullets and missiles against our country, Iranian armed forces will target the heart of Israel and 32 US bases in the region before the dust from this attack has settled," Mojtaba Zolnoor, Khamenei's deputy representative for the elite Revolutionary Guards said.

In reaction, Condoleezza Rice warned Iran the US won't ignore threats and will take any action necessary to defend friends and interests in the Persian Gulf. Rice said Iran's leaders should understand that Washington won't dismiss provocations from Tehran and has the ability to counter them. "I don't think the Iranians are too confused, either, about the capability and the power of the United States to do exactly that," she said.

The implication seems to be that Iran has no right to test its military hardware in order to defend itself against a likely US and/or Israeli attack, a confusing situation to say the least.

Rice has used some of the administration's most direct language yet to make clear the US is strengthening its military presence to counter Iran in the strategic Gulf region and is prepared to use force. She also referred to US arms sales to Gulf allies and military aid to Israel as protection against any threat from Iran. "We take very, very strongly our obligation to help our allies defend themselves, and no one should be confused about that," Rice added.

Despite the unclear US policy on whether it will proceed to attack Iran and whether Iran has the right to defend itself, it is gratifying to know that neither the Iranian people nor US allies are "confused".

A defiant President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir holds up the new and signed electoral law which was approved by parliament. This is the first public appearance by the president since being named today as a war crimes suspect by the International Criminal Court. Observers believe that Sudan would break up if Bashir goes. An internally displaced Sudanese girl carrying her brother in Al-Sereif camp, near Nyala in Sudan's southern Darfur. (photos: AFP)