US focusing on diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear issue
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Brussels, March 22, IRNA
EU-US-Iran
Facing strong opposition from the international community to the use of force to resolve Iran's nuclear issue, the US appears to be more supportive of a diplomatic solution.
"Our goal is a diplomatic solution. We are looking to the Security Council to reinforce the work undertaken in Vienna to achieve a diplomatic solution," US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Gregory Schulte, told a press conference in Brussels Wednesday.
"We have laid out in Vienna what our expectations are to have a diplomatic solution. One of those is for Iran to cooperate fully with the IAEA and another one is for Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment programme," said Schulte who is visiting Brussels for talks with EU officials.
Commenting on the difficulties among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to agree on a common position on Iran, Schulte said he anticipates that there will be a statement coming from the Security Council in the days ahead.
"We hope that statement will reinforce the work that we have been doing at the IAEA," said the US ambassador.
He said Washington's decision to hold talks with Iran is focused on Iraq.
"We have no intentions of opening direct negotiations with Tehran on the nuclear issue. We support the European Union to conduct negotiations, " he added.
Earlier, speaking at a policy briefing on "Iran's nuclear programme, a transatlantic assessment," the US ambassador stressed that "our goal together with the European Union is to achieve a diplomatic solution."
He, however; added that US President George Bush has not ruled out any options to resolve the nuclear issue.
The policy briefing was organized by a Brussels-based think tank 'The European Policy Centre'.
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