The response from Iran on the proposal of the international community led by the United States on its nuclear weapon program is not adequate, the Obama Administration said on Wednesday.
“We don’t think it is an adequate response. We believe that we have put on the table a fair, reasoned, approach. Iran has not addressed the concerns of the international community on its -- answered the questions that have been raised about its nuclear program,” the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P J Crowley told reporters at his daily press conference yesterday.
Crowley said the United States and its international partners -- called P5 plus One identified as Germany and five members of the UN Security Council United States, Britain, France, China and Russia -- had a very useful meeting in New York on Saturday.
“We will continue to discuss with our partners and a range of countries appropriate next steps and options that might exist going forward. So we do not view Iran’s gestures as being adequate,” he said, adding that there was a statement put out on Saturday that recommits the P-5+1 that we continue to have concerns.
“We continue to see the Iranian response as inadequate.
We continue our conversations in terms of options that are available to us, both in terms of the Security Council going forward but also steps that can be taken in a coordinated way, on a national basis,” Crowley said.
“We are developing options on the pressure track. At the same time, the door is open for further dialogue with Iran, but so far, they haven’t been willing to engage us seriously.
So we thought it was a constructive meeting and we’ll continue this process,” the State Department official said.
Noting that the Obama Administration is moving on both tracks on the issue of Iran, Crowley said: “We believe we are making progress. When the process has gone down the road a bit further, I think you will see some actions emerge. But we are considering what to do next. We’re consulting closely“.
In response to a question, Crowley said: “I don’t think that we bridged different views that the United States and others and China has about the issue of sanctions. These are longstanding concerns and we’ll continue to talk to China about them.
