Iran VP: Rouhani has 'unrestricted mandate' to resolve nuke dispute

LONDON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- Iran's president has an "unrestricted mandate" to resolve its nuclear standoff, Vice President Massoumeh Ebtekar said in a British newspaper op-ed.

Ebtekar said newly elected President Hassan Rouhani has the support of a clear majority of Iranians to engage in diplomatic dialogue with the West to resolve the long-simmering tensions related to Iran's highly controversial nuclear enrichment program.

"The new president came to the U.N. with an unrestricted mandate to settle the nuclear dispute with the West," she wrote in The Guardian.

She further called for dialogue over the larger problems in the region, saying international cooperation will be needed to move past the wars and violence that have enveloped much of the Arab world.

Ebtekar said the wars that have enveloped the Middle East in the last 30 years require an international effort to rebuild Arab countries and sew tears in a social fabric that have resulted from the violence.

"In the Islamic heartland we have seen more than 10 major wars and conflicts devastate the region in three decades. While the origin of each conflict rests in both internal and external elements, there are lessons to be learned by global leaders and actions to be taken so that such wars and carnage cease," she wrote.