The United States is prepared to engage with Iran without pre-conditions about its nuclear program but needs to see the country behaving like “a normal nation”, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says.
Iran has dismissed the offer as “word-play”.
Tension between the two foes has increased sharply in the past month, a year after US President Donald Trump abandoned Iran’s 2015 deal with world powers to curb Tehran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions.
Washington, which reimposed sanctions last year, has sharply tightened them since the start of May, ordering all countries to halt imports of Iranian oil. It has hinted at military confrontation, sending extra forces to the region in response to what it calls Iranian threats.
Iran has responded by saying it could increase its production of enriched uranium beyond levels permitted under the deal although it has not yet done so.
Asked about comments by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday that Iran might be willing to hold talks if Washington showed it respect, Pompeo said: “We are prepared to engage in a conversation with no pre-conditions. We are ready to sit down.”
However, he said Washington would continue to work to “reverse the malign activity” of Iran in the Middle East, citing Tehran’s support of Hezbollah and the Syrian government.
Pompeo said President Donald Trump had been saying for a long time that he was willing to talk to Iran.
“We are certainly prepared to have that conversation when the Iranians can prove that they want to behave like a normal nation,” he told a joint news conference with his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis on Sunday.
The State Department later pointed to remarks Trump had made nearly a year ago in which he said he was willing to hold talks with Iran without conditions.
Read the article by David Brunnstrom and John Revill in The Canberra Times (AAP).