Thaindian News

Tehran, Nov 7 (IANS) Iran, whose relation with Washington is strained over its nuclear programme, has urged US president-elect Barack Obama to review America’s policy toward the Islamic nation and respect its, and other nations’, “sovereign rights”, IRNA reported Friday.Government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham Thursday told reporters the massive win of the first African American president is a testimony to the American people’s keenness to rebuild the country’s international image.

Elham said Obama should strive to rebuild the international image of the United States and “remove the world’s lack of confidence in Washington” and expressed hope that the new American president would make “fundamental changes in the US’ war-oriented approach”.

Obama, who Tuesday defeated Republican John McCain in the 2008 US presidential election, will be inaugurated Jan 20.

Obama during his campaign had said he would toughen sanctions on Iran but has also held out the possibility of direct talks to resolve issues, including Tehran’s nuclear dispute with the West.

The president-elect, like his predecessor George W. Bush, has not ruled out military action although he has criticised the outgoing administration for not pushing for more diplomacy and engagement with Iran.

Iran’s prosecutor-general Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dori-Najafabadi called on the Obama Thursday to show goodwill and remove sanctions against the Islamic republic, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

“Through the lifting of the past government’s cruel sanctions against Iran, Barack Obama can demonstrate his goodwill to the Iranian people,” he said.

Tehran’s relation with Washington under outgoing President Bush had plunged to the bottom over the Islamic country’s nuclear programme which the US, and some countries of the West, said was a cover for building nuclear weapons.

Iran, which has dismissed the charge but also persistently refused to stop its uranium enrichment activities, has been under three sets of mild sanctions by the UN.

Both the US and Israel have said they have not ruled out the military option against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Tehran has responded by stepping up its military preparedness in the Gulf and staging a number of war games.