Perhaps 77 million more globalized:Iran's Rezaei plans to offer "mutual changes package" to U.S.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-05-25 02:12:27 Print
TEHRAN, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Iran's presidential candidate and former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezaei said Sunday that he will present a "mutual changes package" to the United States if he wins the June 12 presidential election.
"In this package, Iran will ask U.S. officials what steps they plan to take and tell them what steps Iran plans to take," Rezaei was quoted by local Mehr News Agency as saying.
"The administration should implement the leader's policies in this respect, and so we will offer the U.S. a package of mutual changes," Rezaei told a press conference at the offices of the Tehran Times and the Mehr News Agency.
In response to U.S. President Barack Obama's video message to Iran in March, which called for a "new beginning" of engagement with Tehran, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, "should you change, our behavior will change too."
Rezaei, who was Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps from 1981 to 1997, said that there have been a number of new developments in the United States since President Obama entered the White House in January.
"I am optimistic about these changes, but this issue does not mean that we will stop being vigilant toward the United States," said Rezaei, currently secretary of Iran's Expediency Council.
The plan is a proactive approach that will help differentiate between "grounds for cooperation" and other areas the two countries would not agree on, he said.
The former Revolutionary Guards chief said that if he is elected, his administration will use the package of proposals to assess U.S. officials' attitude toward Iran.
The two reformist candidates -- former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi and former Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi -- and Rezaei, a moderate conservative, are vying with the incumbent hardliner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the next presidency.
The United States severed its ties with Iran in 1980. Since then, Washington has been trying to beef up its sanctions against Tehran for allegedly developing secretly nuclear weapons and for being involved in anti-U.S. activities.
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