President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on April 8 that Iran was still awaiting real and true changes in the attitudes and conduct of the US administration. Making the remarks at a public gathering in this central Iranian city during his 55th provincial visit, he pointed to the message of US President Barack Obama to the Iranian nation on the occasion of Norouz, the new Iranian year, and said the Iranian nation will welcome any hand extended towards it with sincerity and respect. He said that if the nation sensed that the hand extended to it just pretended to be friendly but lacked honesty in essence, then it would react to it the way it did to offers made by former US president George W Bush.
Addressing his American counterpart, the Iranian president recommended to him to act rather than offer mere rhetoric since words would change nothing. Referring to parts of President Obama’s message on the need for Iran to attain its due position in the international arena without attaining nuclear technology, he noted that the statement echoed the same feeling Iran has had in the past three decades during which it kept asking the US about its reasons for stockpiling nuclear arms and trying to solve issues through military means. Stressing that previous US administrations never allowed the rightful voice of nations to be heard, he told Obama to really change his ways and language if he was truly after making changes. He said Iran that has never defined any national interests for itself in other parts of the world while the US has undertaken numerous military operations in the Middle East to safeguard its ‘national’ interests.