WASHINGTON (AFP) — The White House said Friday it had more steps planned to entice Iran into dialogue following President Barack Obama's message offering a "new beginning" after decades of mutual animosity.
Obama's historic online video message to mark the Iranian New Year Nowruz was the latest dramatic step in an emerging diplomatic strategy designed to prod Iran to the negotiating table or bring consequences to bear if it refuses.
The president's spokesman Robert Gibbs was asked whether the White House hoped the message would be the start of an ongoing dialogue with Iran, as Washington and its allies try to halt Tehran's nuclear program.
"Without getting into what next, obviously there will need to be some evaluation overall with our policies," Gibbs told reporters.
Prodded as to whether a "step two" had already been gamed out on paper, Gibbs added: "there is, and there are many more, but none of which I am going to get into today."
Obama's appeal urged an end to decades of animosity and offered "honest" engagement with the Islamic republic.
In a decisive break with his predecessor George W. Bush, Obama called Nowruz celebrations a time of "new beginnings" and said Iran could take its "rightful place" in the world if it renounced terror and embraced peace.
"For nearly three decades, relations between our nations have been strained," he said. "But at this holiday we are reminded of the common humanity that binds us together."
Iran responded by welcoming Obama's olive branch but urged him to take concrete steps to repair US "mistakes."
"We welcome the wish of the president of the United States to put away past differences," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's press adviser Ali Akbar Javanfekr said.
"But the way to do that is not by Iran forgetting the previous hostile and aggressive attitude of the United States," Javanfekr said.
"The American administration has to recognize its past mistakes and repair them as a way to put away the differences."
Iran and the United States have not had diplomatic ties since 1980, a year after Iran became an Islamic republic and in the wake of the 1979 hostage taking of US diplomats by Islamist students at the US embassy in Tehran.
Bush lumped Iran in his "Axis of Evil" with North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq, then led international accusations that Iran is seeking to build a nuclear bomb.
Reeling from international sanctions that Obama has vowed to stiffen if Iran refuses his olive branch, the government maintains its nuclear program is peaceful.
Iranian Energy Minister Parviz Fattah said: "Absolutely this message is positive ... although it might also have negative points in itself as well."
Obama's address signaled his administration recognizes Iran as a potential negotiating partner, despite the president declining to rule out military action to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Obama pledged during his election campaign last year to engage with Washington's adversaries.
During his January 20 inaugural address, he promised hostile leaders he would "extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."
The United States has also said that Iran will be invited to a March 31 conference on Afghanistan in the Hague to be attended by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
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