Chairman of Iran's Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Tuesday that "the United States is the main enemy of the Islamic Republic of Iran," the official IRNA news agency reported.

Making the remarks on the thirtieth anniversary of Iran's Islamic parliament's (Majlis) set-up at the wake of the country's Islamic revolution in 1978, Rafsanjani reiterated one of the revolution's main premises that "the United States is the main enemy of the Islamic Republic of Iran" and "Washington is making great efforts to disturb it."

He said that the US policies are doomed to failure.

"On the existing problems facing the country, there is a need for consolidation of unity and solidarity among different Iranian groups and individuals," he added.

Iran was one of the major allies of he United States before the outbreak of the Islamic revolution, 30 years ago in the previous Iranian regime of Shah whom the Islamic leaders regarded as the bloody hostile.

Persisting on the enmity of the United States with Iran, a group of Iranian students, being supported by the late Iranian leader Imam Khomeini, seized the US embassy in Tehran and captured some 60 American diplomats in 1979, with 52 of them being in captivity for 444 days in the hostage crisis.

The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Iran on April 7, 1980, which has never been recovered thereafter.

The tension escalated as the United States and its allies have been accusing Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, which Iran denies and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

However, some US nongovernmental groups have shown willingness for talks with Iran recently.

After "several letters have been received from the members of the US Congress, and the last one says that 'We think it is the time to start the talks,'" Iran's Majlis (parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani on Monday stressed that Iran needs to know the topics of talks with the United States.

"The letter is being studied, but we have not responded it yet," he said, adding that "The reason is we need to know what the topics of talks with them would be about."

(Xinhua News Agency December 3, 2008)