Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the US is not expecting Iran to soon respond to negotiations regarding its nuclear programme. In an interview aired on Sunday, Clinton and national security adviser James Jones stated that Washington had no choice but to negotiate with the administration of Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, despite of the U.S.’s sympathy for thousands of people who protested against the re-election of Ahmadinejad in a fraudulent election. In April, Washington sent word to Iran, hoping to see Tehran respond to talks among the five permanent U.N. Security Council members. But Iran replied that its nuclear programme was only designed to help generate electricity.
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Currently, the Obama administration is gathering the five permanent U.N. Security Council members, which are the U.S. Britain, China, Russia and France, and adding Germany to the list to create a tougher round of sanctions if Iran rejects or ignores the U.S. proposal. Clinton stated the U.S. will re-evaluate its efforts to negotiate with Iran again in September. ”We are under no illusions. We were under no illusions before their elections that we can get the kind of engagement we are seeking,” she said in an interview. ”The president has also said, look, we need to take stock of this in September. If there is a response, it needs to be on a fast track. We’re not going to keep the window open forever,” she added. Jones also agreed with Clinton’s view that Washington had very little option but to deal with the Ahmadinejad administration. ”We have to deal with the figures of authority that are in position,” Jones said on ‘Meet the Press’.
