President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said Iran bore no hatred towards the United States as he held talks with American Christians in a rare official contact with visitors from Tehran's arch enemy. State television showed Ahmadinejad meeting with a dozen American representatives from various Christian orders who are in Iran for a week-long visit to promote peace and dialogue between the foes.
"The Iranian nation does not have any feeling of hatred and opposition towards the American people and we believe that all people are respectful and given the common grounds people have, they could achieve peace and justice," Ahmadinejad said according to official media.
"The US government has initiated and is continuing animosity against Iran," he told the assembled US delegation, made up of Mennonites, Quakers, Episcopalians, Catholics and United Methodists.
"Due to the repeated mistakes made by the American leadership, the image of the United States is becoming tarnished in the region," the president added.
The delegation, which arrived in Iran last week, has already met with leading Muslim clerics as well as religious leaders of Iran's Christian Armenian minority.
The trip by the US Christians comes after US religious leaders met Ahmadinejad during his visit to New York in September to address the UN General Assembly.
Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations since Washington severed ties in 1980 in the wake of the seizure of its embassy in Tehran by Islamist students.
However small groups of US media, sportsmen and tourists still visit the Islamic republic each year.
