WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- The United States and Iran said Monday that they are not considering any proposal to restore diplomatic ties despite recent contacts between their officials over other issues.
In Washington, the State Department said that holding talks with Iran does not necessarily mean Washington is reopening diplomatic ties with Tehran.
And in the Iranian capital, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi confirmed bilateral talks but said the question of resuming diplomatic ties was not even on the agenda.
However, in a separate development, in an effort to improve the U.S. image in Iran, the State Department on Monday launched a new Web site, in the Persian language, to reach out to Iranian readers.
During the past week, newspapers in the United States and Europe have reported renewed contacts between the two countries, speculating that they may re-establish diplomatic relations soon. These secret talks were apparetly held in Geneva, Switzerland.
The United States severed diplomatic ties with Iran after radical students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 following the Islamic revolution.
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker told reporters in Washington the Iran-U.S. talks are focusing on issues of mutual concern, such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
"The United Nations has regularly facilitated contacts between the United States and Iran through what we call the Geneva process, to discuss practical issues regarding Afghanistan, originally, and that's expanded to Iraq," he said.
He confirmed that President George W. Bush's special envoy for Afghanistan and Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, has also been involved in talks with Iran.
"And this is not somehow a new opening of diplomatic relations, this is an opportunity to deal with some practical issues ... particularly as they have to do with neighbors of Iran's, that is Afghanistan or Iraq," said Reeker.
The State Department spokesman said the United States continues to have "long-standing policy differences" with Iran, and he charged that Tehran has been supporting terrorism; pursuing weapons of mass destruction; and opposing Middle East peace.
Iran's record on the human rights situation continues to be quite poor as well, he added.
Washington also has urged the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to declare Iran in noncompliance with the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty when it meets next month.
Bush told reporters last week he will decide how to deal with this issue after the agency submits its report on Iran's nuclear program.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed that the two countries were discussing Afghanistan and the presence of an Iranian armed opposition group -- Mujahedin-e-Khalq -- in Iraq.
This weekend, the United States decided to disarm the Iranian opposition group, apparently making a reconciliatory gesture towards Tehran.
Media reports have suggested that, in turn, the Americans are asking Iran to hand over al-Qaida suspects who they say fled to Iran from northern Iraq during the U.S.-led war in the country.
The two sides are also discussing Iran's alleged support for militant Islamic groups in the Middle East and its alleged nuclear program, media reports suggested.
