(VOA News) David Gollust - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday the U.S. and allies will not back down in pressing Iran on concerns that its nuclear program is weapons-related. "Regrettably Iran has not responded to...engagement even as the international community's concern about the intent of Iran's nuclear program has increased....We will not be waited-out and we will not back down," she said. "The prospects of the instability that would potentially ensue from Iran pursuing and achieving a nuclear breakout capacity or even a nuclear weapons program would be so potentially destabilizing that there is not a country in the world that is in the neighborhood, the region, relies on the oil markets, that would not be directly affected." The new EU chief diplomat, Catherine Ashton of Britain, said: "We want to have dialogue, but six years of dialogue by my predecessor Javier Solana has not brought us to the outcome that we have wished. So we do have to consider what else needs to be done, and we stand ready to do that."
2010-01-22 08:23:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive