(Adds Clinton quotes, background, details)
BRASILIA, April 16 (Reuters) – The United States will
maintain sanctions and other pressure on Iran as Tehran
considers what it will bring to the table in the next round of
talks over its nuclear program, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton said on Monday.
Iran’s foreign minister was quoted earlier as saying his
country was ready to resolve all nuclear issues in the next
round of talks with world powers if the West starts lifting
sanctions.
It was unclear whether Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar
Salehi was suggesting that sanctions be lifted before Iran takes
steps to reassure the West over its nuclear activities, but
Clinton made clear that would not be possible.
“I believe in action for action but I think in this case the
burden of action falls on the Iranians to demonstrate their
seriousness and we are going to keep the sanctions in place and
the pressure on Iran as they consider … what they’ll bring to
the table in Baghdad and we’ll respond accordingly,” Clinton
told reporters in Brasilia when asked about Salehi’s comments.
She was referring to the next round of talks between Iran
and the major powers — Britain, China, France, Russia, the
United States and Germany — scheduled for late May in Baghdad.
Both sides have said they were content with progress made in
Saturday’s talks in Istanbul which did not go into detail but,
unlike earlier rounds of negotiations, stayed on the subject of
Iran’s nuclear program.
“We are going to take this one step at a time but clearly
any process would have to have reciprocal expectations and
actions and there has to be evidence by Iran that they would be
seriously moving toward removing a lot of their nuclear
ambiguity that exists now, that they would be much more open and
transparent, and that they would take steps to respond to the
U.N. Security Council resolutions and to the international
community’s concerns,” Clinton said.
The United States and its allies suspect that Iran is using
its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop atomic bombs.
Iran insists that its program is solely for civilian purposes
such as electricity generation and medical uses.
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Sandra Maler and
Christopher Wilson)
