Obama’s decision major shift from Bush’s approach
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration said Wednesday it will participate directly in group talks with Iran over its suspect nuclear program, another significant shift from President George W. Bush’s policy toward a nation he labeled part of an axis of evil.
The State Department said the United States would be at the table “from now on” when senior diplomats from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany meet with Iranian officials to discuss the nuclear issue. The Bush administration had generally shunned such meetings, although it attended one last year.
“We believe that pursuing very careful engagement on a range of issues that affect our interests and the interests of the world with Iran makes sense,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters. “There is nothing more important than trying to convince Iran to cease its efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon.”
State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the decision was conveyed to representatives of Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia by the third-ranking U.S. diplomat, William Burns, at a Wednesday meeting in London. That group announced earlier that it would invite Iran to attend a new session aimed at breaking a deadlock in the talks.
Wood said the administration wants a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear issue and believes that requires “a willingness to engage directly with each other.”
The invitation is to be sent to the Iranians by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. No time frame was given for a meeting date.