Obama says US, allies considering “consequences” for Iran

Washington, 19 November (WashingtonTV)—US President Barack Obama said on Thursday that the United States and its partners were working on a package of measures to show Iran the “consequences” of failing to accept a United Nations-brokered nuclear fuel deal.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Wednesday that Tehran would not ship any of its low-enriched uranium abroad for processing, as demanded by the draft agreement.

“Iran has taken weeks now and has not shown its willingness to say yes to this proposal … and so as a consequence, we have begun discussions with our international partners about the importance of having consequences,” Obama said at a joint news conference in Seoul with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, reports Reuters.

Obama said that over the next several weeks, the U.S. and its allies will work on developing a package of steps that will indicate their “seriousness” to Iran.

He said Iran needed to get a “clear message” that, if it failed to take advantage of such opportunities, it was “making itself less secure”, reports the BBC.

Mottaki yesterday proposed carrying out a simultaneous exchange of nuclear fuel within Iran’s borders instead.

Obama said he still hoped Iran would change its mind and accept what he described as a “fair” deal.

He said he was pleased with the “extraordinary international unity” on the issue, and said it is an indication that world powers had “taken the right approach”.

Speaking during a visit to the Philippines, Mottaki today dismissed the threat of further international sanctions.

“Sanctions was the literature of the ‘60s and ‘70s,” Mottaki said, according to AFP.

He said that Iran was willing to discuss the nuclear fuel deal, but only if the swap of fuel took place in Iran.

Sources: Reuters, BBC News, Agence France-Presse

© WashingtonTV 2009. All rights reserved.