Manama: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Iran to address "the world’s concerns" about its nuclear activities and to help the international community restore its confidence in Tehran's programmes.
Addressing the Iranian delegation taking part in an internationals security conference in Manama, Clinton said in a distinctly warm tone towards Iran that Washington remained committed to a dialogue with Tehran, but wanted the Iranians to take positive steps that would ultimately make the world "benefit from the full participation of the Iranian nation in the political, social and economic life" of the Gulf region.
"I would like to address directly the delegation at this conference from the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Clinton said in the opening speech of the Manama Dialogue. "In Geneva next week, the P5+1 will meet with representatives from your nation, the first such meeting since October 2009. We hope that out of this meeting, entered into with good faith, we will see a constructive engagement with respect to your nuclear programme," she said, with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki sitting a few metres away. She later joined him at the official table, but was five seats away from him. Clinton and Mottaki did not speak to each other.
"Nearly two years ago, President Obama extended your government a sincere offer of dialogue. We are still committed to this offer, but the position of the international community is clear: you have the right to a peaceful nuclear programme, but with that right comes a reasonable responsibility that you follow the treaty you signed and fully address the world’s concerns about your nuclear activities. We urge you to make that choice for your people, your interests and our shared security. We urge you to restore the confidence of the international community and live up to your international obligations," the US secretary of state said three days before the next meeting between Iran and the P5+1 countries in Geneva on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
However, Clinton said, the most recent IAEA report "reflected once again that so far Iran has chosen a different path; one that leads to greater international concern, isolation and pressure."
"We know that Iran is home of one of humankind’s great civilisations and the Iranian people are heirs to that tradition. With tremendous potential to contribute to the world we are building together and the world in turn would benefit from the full participation of the Iranian nation in the political, social and economic life of this region. We continue to make this offer of engagement with respect for your sovereignty and with regard for your interests but also with an iron clad commitment to defining global security and the world’s interests in a peaceful and prosperous Gulf region," she said.
Clinton later said that she hoped that the negotiations in Geneva over the nuclear programme will lead to breakthroughs.
"I wanted to stress again that Iran is entitled to the peaceful use of civil nuclear energy, but the facts are stubborn and undebatable about the concerns that the international community has expressed," she said in the Questions and Answers that followed her speech.
"The fact that the UN adopted sanctions illustrates the concern, because no-one is particularly fond of sanctions. It is not something that any country, or certainly the United Nations, or the European Union, or others, wish to pursue. However, it is a diplomatic tool, one of the strongest we have in the toolbox, to send a message that there is a level of concern that must be addressed by Iran. Otherwise, we are left to draw the worst conclusions, and that is a recipe for further destabilising of this region, in ways that would have long-term consequences."
According to Clinton, Iran’s strategic interests will be served if it goes to the talks in Geneva committed to working out a way "to restore the confidence of the international community, to firmly, conclusively reject the use of nuclear weapons, and to understand the strategic calculation at work here."
"If anyone in Iran believes that either acquiring nuclear weapons or the breakout capacity for nuclear weapons will make Iran stronger and more dominant in the region, that is an absolutely wrong calculation. It will trigger an arms race that will make the region less stable and more uncertain, and will cause serious repercussions far beyond the Gulf. I am hoping, and waiting, to see the results of the discussions in Geneva. The United States, as I said, stands ready to continue engagement, if there is a sincere effort by Iran to deal with the nuclear programme in a way that permits the international community to move forward with Iran," she said.
