The United States Monday said it welcomed a conciliatory Iranianstatement about possible new talks with world powers on its nuclearprogram. But the State Department says it remains skeptical that Iran'snuclear program is peaceful.
The Iranian state news mediareported Monday that the Tehran government's chief nuclear negotiator had spoken by telephone with European Union chief diplomatJavier Solana over the weekend.
Jalili is said to have toldSolana Iran would welcome dialogue on "constructive cooperation" on thenuclear issue with the five permanent U.N. Security Council membercountries and Germany, the so-called P-5 Plus 1.
Last week, the Obamaadministration said it was ready to take full part in the big powerdialogue with Iran, breaking with the Bush administration which hadinsisted that Iran first suspend uranium enrichment.
At a newsbriefing Monday, State Department Acting Spokesman Robert Wood said theUnited States welcomes the fact Iran is interested in dialogue but isskeptical about Iranian professions of peaceful nuclear intent.
"Wewant to deal with Iran on this issue. It's an important issue to theinternational community, and Iran needs to show the internationalcommunity that its nuclear program is a peaceful one. Right now theinternational community is very skeptical about that," said Wood. "But as I've said,we want to directly engage Iran on a range of issues. And we encourageIran to come forward and provide the international community with allthe assurances that it requires, to be convinced that Iran is pursuinga peaceful nuclear program."
Wood said a"sincere offer" by the P-5 Plus 1 to provide Iran with a"substantive package of incentives" to stop enrichment and return tonegotiations remains on the table.
The enhanced sanctionspackage, presented by the six powers at a meeting in Geneva last July,was spurned by Iran, which said it has a right to pursue its enrichmentdrive as part of a peaceful nuclear program.
A senior StateDepartment official said no date has been set for a P-5 Plus 1 meeting with Iran and that despite the latest Iranian comments, he saidhe did not think one is imminent.
He said if a meeting is held,it would likely be at the so-called "political director" level andinvolve, on the U.S. side, Undersecretary of State for Political AffairsWilliam Burns and not Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.