Washington, August 11: The Obama administration has said it is committed to engage Iran in direct diplomacy and its offer to have dialogue with the Iranian regime still stands.
“We made a strategic decision some time ago to engage Iran in direct diplomacy. We stand by that decision. We decided to do that because we have very, very strong and serious concerns about Iran’s nuclear activities,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters here.
“As with North Korea, we believe the ball is in Iran’s court, and we hope that Iran will take up our offer of direct dialogue. But that remains to be seen,” he said.
A large number of countries share the concerns of the US about the nuclear ambitions of Iran, he said and added that so far Tehran has shown “no interest” in wanting to engage the US or other members of the UN security council.
“As I mentioned last week, Javier Solana’s invitation to the Iranians to participate in a P-5+1 meeting with the United States as a full partner, Iran has not responded to that,” he said.
Even as the US administration has spoken out against what happened in the aftermath of Iran’s elections last month, in the end, Iran will have to deal with the concerns of its people, Wood said.
“In terms of whether it complicates our ability to go forward, we will deal with whatever authority emerges in Iran if indeed Iran is interested in engaging the US,” he observed.
Denying that the US has abandoned those Iranians who protested recently, Wood said, “Basically, what the Iranians are fighting for within their society is the ability to express themselves and to be able to peacefully demonstrate.
“They have some clear, serious concerns about the people who run their affairs. Whatever authority is in power in Iran will have to deal with these questions. The US is not involved in this. This is something that is transpiring between the Iranian authorities and their people.”
“We will continue to speak out when we see human rights violations committed, where freedom of the press or freedom of Assembly is violated. But in the end, this is something that the Iranian people are going to have to deal – this is a question between those who govern and the governed. And that’s where we stand,” he added.
–Agencies