Washington - The United States will confront Iran's nuclear activities head-on when officials from the two adversaries and other major powers meet at the start of next month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday. Iran on Monday agreed to meet with representatives of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, China, Russia, France and Britain - plus Germany on October 1. It will be the first such meeting since July 2008.
But Iran has said it wants to discuss global denuclearization and other issues, and considers the matter of its own nuclear activities to be closed.
"We have made clear to the Iranians that any talks we participate in must address the nuclear issue head-on," Clinton told reporters at the State Department in Washington. "It cannot be ignored."
The West believes Iran is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. Iran says its programme is purely for peaceful purposes, and has continued enriching uranium despite United Nations Security Council resolutions ordering it to stop.
Clinton said the United States was still considering more international sanctions against Iran, but would wait to see if "something positive" came out of the October 1 meeting.
"We have no illusions about the Iranian government, but the point is to meet and explain to the Iranians face-to-face the choices that Iran has and to see wheather Iran is prepared to engage with us around its nuclear programme," she said.
The meeting itself was in keeping with President Barack Obama's pledge to engage in direct talks with Iran, Clinton said. The two adversaries have not had diplomatic relations since 1980.
"We think it is very much worthwhile, but we are not gonna be talking for the sake of talking and we are not engaging in a process that has no purpose or end point," Clinton said.
