Working through the United Nations Security Council, not direct negotiations, is the right course in dealing with Iran's nuclear program, says U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley:
"We have a number of countries that are engaged with Iran on this issue. We are supportive of the discussions, as you know. The Europeans made a proposal to Iran about a year and a half ago, and we indicated clearly we were going to facilitate that proposal. The forum has now shifted to a discussion in the United Nations Security Council, where the international community, as a whole, of which the United States is a part, can make it clear to Iran what it needs to do."
Mr. Hadley says that the process that has begun "needs to go forward":
"There needs to be a Chapter Seven resolution coming out of the United Nations Security Council that makes clear what Iran needs to do, in terms of reassuring the international community that it has given up its nuclear weapons ambitions. We are looking at the kinds of sanctions that might be applied if it does not make the right choice. We're also looking at the kinds of benefits that might be applied if Iran does make the right choice. But there's been a lot of opportunity for discussion with Iran on this issue."
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack says that so far, "the Iranian government has refused to engage in a constructive and serious manner":
"They have engaged in a negotiating process that, by all outward appearances, would seem only to be an exercise in delaying and stalling while they continued on down the road of acquiring a nuclear weapon under cover of a civilian nuclear program."
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack says the United States has "no desire or intent to punish the Iranian people. . . .but the Iranian people should be aware that it is their regime that has put them in this place right now where they are increasingly isolated from the rest of the world."
The preceding was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government.
