The White House denied on Tuesday a report by the New York Times that the United States may drop key condition for Iran talks.
In its Tuesday report, the New York Times quoted unidentified officials as reporting that the Obama administration and its European allies are preparing proposals that would shift strategy toward Iran by dropping a long-standing American insistence that Tehran rapidly shut down nuclear facilities during the early phases of negotiations over its atomic program.
"We have all agreed that is simply not going to work -- experience tells us the Iranians are not going to buy it," a senior European official, involving in the strategy session with the Obama administration, was quoted as saying. "So we are going to start with some interim steps, to build a little trust."
In response to the report, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told a news briefing that "This would not be the first time that I have stood at this podium, having read something in the newspaper that I found to be not accurate."
The United States said last week that it will take part in the proposed talks with Iran with other five powers -- Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, in an attempt to find a political solution to Iran's nuclear program.
"If Iran accepts, we hope this will be the occasion to seriously engage Iran on how to break the logjam of recent years and work in a cooperative manner to resolve the outstanding international concerns about its nuclear program," State Department acting spokesman Robert Wood said.
The United States and its European allies claim that Iran intends to secretly develop nuclear weapons, while the UN Security Council also requires Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activity.
However, Iran insists that its nuclear plan is only for peaceful purposes, and continues its uranium enrichment activity despite the pressure from the western countries and relevant resolutions and sanctions of the United Nations.
(Xinhua News Agency April 15, 2009)
