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October 16, 2010

Expressing that its door of diplomacy is still open, the U.S. has said that Iran, now under strong international sanctions, faces a bleak future because of the stubbornness shown by its leaders with its unilateral nuclear programme.

“Last month he (Iranian President Ahmadinejad) made a trip to the United States and had some crazy things to say.Yesterday, he made a trip to Lebanon and again had some crazy things to say. He’s now back in Tehran where his country faces an increasingly bleak future and is further isolated from the international community as our announcement today underscores,” State Department spokesman, P. J. Crowley, said.

The State Department spokesman said the U.S. believe that the latest round of sanctions imposed on Iran by the U.S. Security Council is increasing.

“We are enforcing 1929 (UN resolution) country by country, and in the private sector, company by company are refusing to do business with Iran,” he said.

It is having an impact on the ground and it is contrary to the best interests of the Iranian people who definitely want to have a different kind of relationship with the rest of the world, he observed.

“And that potential exists if Iran will meet its obligations and help us understand the nature of its nuclear programme and convince the rest of the world that it is not intent on building a nuclear weapon.

But as long as the international community feels that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon, then Iran can expect to have these sanctions continue to bite,” he said.

Mr. Crowley said the door of diplomacy is still open for Iran as announced by U.S. President Barack Obama.

“In fact, as was announced, Catherine Ashton of the EU has extended an invitation for Iran to meet next month in what we hope will be serious discussions on Iran’s nuclear programme.

We are awaiting Iran’s response. So we have a dual-track strategy,” he said.

“We’re going to continue to pursue pressure on one hand, but the door has been open to Iran for some time, and really — literally, the ball is in Iran’s court.

We hope they’ll respond to Catherine Ashton and hope we can begin a sustained dialogue with Iran,” he said.

However in the case of Afghanistan there has been cooperation with Iran, he observed.

“We have the same interest in a stable Afghanistan.

The United States, the international community, and Iran have cooperated in the context of Afghanistan in the past.

I believe in this meeting on Monday in Italy, Iran may well have its Afghan envoy there. I don’t project that we’re going to have any contact with him, but we recognize that Iran is a neighbour of Afghanistan, has an interest.

We would hope that Iran will play a more constructive role in Afghanistan than we’ve seen in the recent past,” Mr. Crowley said.