Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26
By Temkin Jafarov, Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran rejects reports which claim the Islamic Republic's stance towards Israel is changed, Marzieh Afkham, the Islamic Republic's foreign ministry spokeswoman said during a press conference in Tehran on Aug. 26, Trend's correspondent reported.
The Israel issue was never discussed during the visit of the British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond to Tehran, Afkham underlined.
Shortly before a scheduled meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Hammond spoke to BBC, saying that Iran has shown a more nuanced approach towards Israel.
"What we're looking for is behavior from Iran, not only towards Israel but towards other players in the region, that slowly rebuilds their sense that Iran is not a threat to them," he said.
Meanwhile Iran's semi-official Fars news agency quoted Hammond as saying "Iran's position with Israel has changed a little" and that "Iran is no longer a threat to Israel" which caused a controversy inside the country.
Afkham said that the information on the issue is media speculation, underlining that mutual ties, regional and global issues as well as fighting with terrorism and extremism were the only topics which discussed during Hammond's visit to Tehran.
Similar disputes raised in Iran during the last month visit of German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel to Tehran.
Some media reported that during his visit, Sigmar has urged the Islamic Republic to improve relations with Israel if it wants to form closer economic ties with Germany.
Following that Iranian Minister of Justice Mostafa Pourmohammadi has accused some domestic media of publishing wrong information about the German official's comments.
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