details added (first version posted at 16:13)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 12
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said that Iran has responded to some letters of Barack Obama, the U.S. president, the Islamic Republic's ISNA news agency reported Nov. 12.
Shamkhani made the statement while responding a question about a secret letter sent by Obama to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Western media outlets reported that President Obama secretly wrote to Khamenei in the mid-October and described a shared interest in fighting the IS (Islamic State terrorist group) militants in Iraq and Syria.
Shamkhani said that writing letter by the U.S. president is not a recent issue and in recent years several letters have been sent to Iranian officials.
He said Iranian side has responded to some of the letters.
Shamkhani also criticized the U.S. administration saying "they follow different approaches within their public positions and their secret letters."
He said that Iran once again reminded its clear and decisive position on the nuclear issue to the U.S. president, emphasizing that the Islamic Republic will never accept demonstrative uranium enrichment.
Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council comprising of China, France, Russia, Britain, the US Plus Germany) held their latest round of talks on the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program in the Omani capital city of Muscat on Nov. 11, ahead of a 24 Nov. deadline for a breakthrough deal.
Last November, the two sides clinched an interim nuclear accord, which took effect on Jan. 20 and expired six months later. However, the parties agreed to extend their talks until Nov. 24 as they remained divided on a number of key issues.