Washington: Softening its stance, Iran has requested, through intermediaries, for direct talks with the US over its nuclear programme, according to American officials and foreign diplomats.
The request follows Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent letter to President George W Bush.
Senior Iranian officials have asked a number of intermediaries to pass the word to Washington making clear their desire for direct talks, Saeed Laylaz, a former government official and prominent analyst in Tehran, told the Washington Post.
Laylaz said that the Chairman of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, passed that message to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, who arrived in Washington on Tuesday for talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley.
Iranian officials made similar requests through Indonesia, Kuwait and U N Secretary General Kofi Annan, Laylaz added.
American intelligence analysts also say Larijani's urgent request for meetings with senior officials in France and Germany appear to be part of a bid for dialogue with Washington.
"They've been desperate to do it," said a European diplomat in Tehran.
"The eagerness for talks demonstrates a profound change in Iran's political orthodoxy, emphatically erasing a taboo against contact with Washington that has both defined and confined Tehran's public foreign policy for more than a quarter-century," the officials were quoted.
Though the Tehran government in the past has routinely jailed its citizens on charges of contact with the US, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, implicitly endorsed Ahmadinejad’s May 8 letter.
The letter was highly critical of US policy but it indicated a willingness to discuss nuclear disputes.
"You know, two months ago nobody would believe that Khamenei and Ahmadinejad together would be trying to get George W. Bush to begin negotiations," Laylaz said.
"This is a sign of changing strategy. They realise the situation is dangerous and they should not waste time, that they should reach out," he added.
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