Iran is “friends with the Israeli people,” a deputy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, in stark contrast to Tehran's usual verbal assaults against the Jewish state, local media reported on Sunday. Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, vice president in charge of tourism and one of Ahmadinejad's closest confidants, also described the people of Iran's arch-enemy the United States as “one of the best nations in the world.” “Today, Iran is friends with the American and Israeli people. No nation in the world is our enemy, this is an honor,” Rahim Mashaie said, according to the Fars news agency and Etemad newspaper. “We regard the American people as one of the best nations in the world.” Rahim Mashaie is one of the figures closest to the president in the Iranian government. This was emphasized earlier this year when his daughter married Ahmadinejad's son. Meanwhile, Iran was given a two-week deadline to give a final answer to world powers seeking a breakthrough in the nuclear crisis, after talks with the EU foreign policy chief ended in stalemate. Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana hailed their latest talks in Geneva Saturday as “constructive” but Solana lamented that Tehran had still not given a final response. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the talks as a “step forward” in the nuclear standoff, which has raised fears of regional conflict and sent oil prices spiraling. Solana, who presented Iran with a major package aimed at ending the standoff on behalf of world powers last month, said he was waiting for a decision from Tehran on an initial deal to start pre-negotiations. This would see world powers promising not to impose further UN Security Council resolutions against Tehran, in exchange for Iran not installing any more uranium-enriching centrifuges, he said. “We have not got an answer to the most important issue... we are looking forward to an answer to these questions in a couple of weeks,” said Solana. Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Kisliak, who attended the talks, said he too expected a response from Iran in two weeks.
