Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that he approved of proposed talks between US and Iranian officials on Iraq, but warned that the US must not try to "bully" Iran.
It was the first confirmation that Khamenei, who holds final say on all state matters in Iran, is in favor of the talks. His comments on Tuesday appeared aimed at calming criticism by hard-liners over a major shift in policy by the regime, which long shunned high-level contacts with a country Tehran brands "the Great Satan."
Khamenei spoke hours after US President George W. Bush said he favors the talks, in which he said US officials would show Iran "what's right or wrong in their activities inside of Iraq."
Khamenei said that "if the Iranian officials can make the US understand some issues about Iraq, there is no problem with the negotiations."
"But if the talks mean opening a venue for bullying and imposition by the deceitful party [the US], then it will be forbidden," he said in a nationally televised speech in the holy Shiite city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran.
Both the US and Iran have said the talks would focus solely on stabilizing Iraq and not deal with the heated issue of Iran's nuclear program. No time or place has yet been set for talks, though the US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, who is to head the US side, has proposed holding them in Baghdad.
Last week, a top Iranian official -- Ali Larijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council -- announced that Tehran was willing to enter talks with the US.
The announcement drew criticism from some hard-liners in Iran's clerical regime. Hossein Shariatmadari, a close adviser to Khamenei, called Larijani's statements "deplorable" and said holding talks with the US would signal that "Iran gave in to Washington."
Khamenei appeared to be weighing in to end the criticism, while insisting Iran would not bow to the US in any talks. He said some US officials had depicted the talks as if the US were "summoning Iranian officials."
"I say here that the US government has no right to summon Iranian officials," Khamenei said.
Khamenei is considered the leader of hard-liners in Iran who largely prevented reformists from opening greater contacts with the US. Still, under his rule, Iran has held lower-level talks with US officials, particularly in multilateral gatherings for efforts to stabilize Afghanistan and counter narcotics, for instance.
But the Iraq talks are the first time Iran has formally agreed to hold direct meetings with the US.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Friday that the talks could help Iraq form a government, while Larijani said Iran hopes the meetings will help lead to US troop withdrawals.
Iran has considerable influence with Shiite political parties who dominate Iraq's parliament, and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said US-Iranian talks on Iraq could be "useful."
Bush on Tuesday told reporters that he had instructed Khalilzad to make Iran understand that "attempts to spread sectarian violence or to maybe move parts that could be used for [improvised explosive devices] is unacceptable to the United States."
The Bush administration has accused Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard of smuggling bomb-making parts across the border into Iraq, though General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged last week he has no evidence Iran's government is sponsoring such activity. Bomb attacks have mainly been carried out by Sunni insurgents attacking the Shiite-led Iraqi government.
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