"We have heard such remarks a lot but unfortunately they are full of contradictions"

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Saturday dismissed a renewed US offer of dialogue by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying the "contradictions" of pursuing talks at the same time as threats undermined the proposal.

"We have heard such remarks a lot but unfortunately they are full of contradictions," Salehi said at a joint media conference in Tehran with the visiting leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in neighboring Iraq, Massud Barzani. He was responding to remarks Clinton made Wednesday on BBC Farsi and Voice of America (VOA) in which she said Washington was "prepared to engage" with Iran, even as it maintains sanctions.
  
"On one hand, they express interest in establishing relations, and on the other hand some comments are made (by the Americans) which do not jibe with that," Salehi was quoted by Iran's state television website as saying.
  
Accusing the Americans of "arrogance," Salehi said that establishing relations would only be meaningful "when the two sides begin negotiations on an equal footing and without preconditions -- however it seems that the time (for rapprochement) has not arrived yet."