Washington - President Bill Clinton said yesterday he would welcome a dialogue with Iran if it covered real issues separating Washington and Tehran and hailed conciliatory remarks by the Iranian President Mr Mohammad Khatami.
"I would like nothing better than to have a dialogue with Iran, as long as we can have an honest discussion of the relevant issues," Mr Clinton told reporters during a picture-taking session with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, who is on a visit to the US.
"I was quite encouraged by Mr Khatami's statement, and it was welcome," Mr Clinton said.
But he said a number of contentious issues would need to be addressed in any dialogue.
"We remain concerned about their sponsorship of terrorism, about violent attacks on the (Middle East) peace process, about development and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction. And we will continue to be concerned about those things," he said.
Meanwhile, Iranian police arrested the most prominent opposition leader tolerated in the country, his liberal Islamist opposition group said yesterday. The semi-legal Iran Freedom Movement (IFM) said in a statement that its leader, Mr Ebrahim Yazdi (66), was called in on Sunday for questioning by revolutionary courts prosecutors and later arrested and taken to Evin prison in Tehran.
Mr Yazdi was detained a day after he joined more than 50 other critics in demanding that a controversial dissident cleric's rights be respected.
State media have not confirmed the report and Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment.