White House defends Obama's open hand to Iran
AFP
WASHINGTON- The White House Tuesday defended President Barack Obama's open hand policy towards Iran, after Hillary Clinton said nearly a year of offering dialogue to the Islamic state had achieved little progress.
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs argued that the strategy of initially offering to engage Iran had convinced world powers to form a united front against Tehran when it did not respond to the overture.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Gibbs pointed to recent statements of the permanent five members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany condemning Iran's nuclear program, including Russia and China.
"I think that represents real and genuine progress that the president believes will pay dividends in the coming weeks," said Gibbs, who added that he had not seen Clinton's comments.
The Obama administration has given Iran until the end of the year to accept a deal with world powers to ease the nuclear standoff, but there are increasing signs the focus is now turning to tough new sanctions against Tehran.
Clinton said on Monday that Obama's Iran engagement policy had so far yielded few, if any results.
"We have reached out. We have offered the opportunity to engage in meaningful, serious discussions with our Iranian counterparts. We have joined fully in the P5-plus-1 one process. We've been at the table," Clinton said.
"But I don't think anyone can doubt that our outreach has produced very little in terms of any kind of positive response from the Iranians," the chief US diplomat said.
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