WASHINGTON/TEHRAN: Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, in an interview published on Monday, said his country did not believed Israel or the United States would launch a military strike against Iran over its nuclear programme.

Asked in an interview with Newsweek magazine and The Washington Post if he believed there would an Israeli or US attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, Mottaki answered flatly: “No.” He did not elaborate.

At the same time, he welcomed the US decision last July to send one of the top State Department officials, William Burns, to attend negotiations with Iran in Europe, interpreting the move as a realistic step. “We welcomed the participation by Mr Burns in the Geneva talks,” Mottaki said. “We feel that if this is the real approach taken by the US right now vis-a-vis the nuclear issue, they must continue with such efforts.”

The foreign minister said previously, the administration of President George W Bush attached conditions to its participation in the talks with Iran. Burns’s presence in Geneva, argued Mottaki, “meant that those were no longer in play.” Meanwhile, Tehran said on Monday that it did not plan to allow a US research and policy think-tank to open in the Islamic republic after Washington gave its blessing for such a move.

Washington said on October 2 that it had given rare approval to the American Iranian Council (AIC) to set up an office in Iran, although the State Department insisted that US policy towards Tehran had not changed. But Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi told reporters: “This matter was not discussed and is not being discussed. The issue is not on the agenda.” The AIC, which is devoted to improving ties between the two arch enemies, was given a licence to establish a presence in Tehran by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which enforces US sanctions against countries such as Iran, Sudan and Cuba.

The AIC is headed by Houshang Amirahmadi, who lives in the United States. He made several visits to Iran in recent months. On Sunday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington is still considering setting up a diplomatic mission in the Islamic republic, despite 30 years of severed ties. “We continue to look at the idea,” Rice told reporters during a visit to Astana when asked about a report that plans for opening a US interests section in Iran had been shelved.

When asked about Rice’s comments, Ghashghavi said: “Other than the views I have read in the media, we have not received any official request in this regard which enables me to take an official stance.”