Envoy: Iran open to direct talks with U.S.

Iran would be willing to sit down for direct talks with the United States, the country's ambassador to the United Nations said in an interview broadcast on CNN.

"I can confirm it here with you, and also for your distinguished audience, that Iran will come into negotiation and direct talks with the United States provided that we make sure that the U.S. is serious and does not act differently," Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee told CNN's Fareed Zakaria in an interview that aired on Fareed Zakaria GPS.

Khazaee said Iranians felt that at last week's negotiation with the United States and other aligned nations, "both sides are getting closer to each other."

The P5+1 nations -- the United States, France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia -- had offered to relieve some sanctions in exchange for suspending the enrichment of uranium at the Fordo nuclear facility.

But Khazaee said that the United States is pushing away Iran with the tough talk and sanctions. He pointed to recent comments by Vice President Joe Biden that there is room for diplomacy "backed by pressure" as being unproductive in resolving differences.

"Look, it doesn't work that way. The most important point is that some officials in United States should understand how to speak with the Iranians," Khazaee said.

Khazaee also said there should not be so much focus on the levels and amount of enrichment, the very indicators the United States, Israel and others are monitoring to see whether Iran crosses the "red line" of having enough materials to build a nuclear bomb.

"How much stockpile Iran can have or how much, or the enrichment at what level should be in Iran -- those are, in my view, a small and technical point that should be discussed," Khazaee observed.

Veering into popular culture, Khazaee, who helped create the Iranian film industry, was critical of the Academy Award-winning movie "Argo," about the rescue of six American diplomats from Iran during the revolution.

"From the technical point of view, to be honest with you, if I was a judge, the movie is a very weak movie," Khazaee said, adding the film was "insulting" to Iran.

The ambassador said producer George Clooney and director Ben Affleck displayed a lack of understanding of Iranian culture and invited them to come to his country.

"I would like to invite the producer and the director of the film to travel to Iran, and when they travel to Iran, the day after they will apologize from the big nation of Iran for producing such a weak film."