Iran's Ahmadinejad congratulates US president-elect Obama

Nov 6, 2008, 16:14 GMT

Tehran - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday, in a rare move, congratulated the US president-elect Barack Obama on his success in the recent US presidential race.

'Mr Barack Obama, the president-elect of the United States of America, I congratulate you for being able to attract the majority of votes in the elections,' said Ahmadinejad at the start of the message address to to the next president of the country which happens to be Iran's arch-foe.

'The opportunities gifted by God are short-lived and I hope you do your best to use this chance of service and leave a good name by moving in the line of people's real interests,' the president said in the message carried by official news agency IRNA.

Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic ties since the victory of Islamic revolution in Iran when Islamist students seized the US embassy in Tehran and took US diplomats hostage for 444 days on November 1979.

The founder of revolution, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, called America 'the great Satan' while more than two decades later, current US President George W Bush accused Tehran of sponsoring terrorism, labelling the Islamic state a part of an 'Axis of Evil.'