The US has said that Iran is not serious in having dialogue with the international community on nuclear issue, a day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he was willing to have a face-to-face meeting with US President Barack Obama on this issue.
“Obviously Iran has on any number of occasions changed their position based on I think largely the pain that they’re feeling on sanctions, based on the decisions that their government has made that don't jibe with where the people are,” White House Press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.
“We have always said that we would be willing to sit down and discuss Iran’s illicit nuclear program if Iran is serious about doing that,” Gibbs said when asked about the Iranian offer, adding that “to date, that seriousness has not been there.”
The press secretary said that Iran has the obligations that it needs to meet, and failure to meet those would continue to result in unilateral sanctions by the US government.
“UN sanctions that have been passed, European Union sanctions that have been passed, and other countries beyond this taking unilateral action,” Gibbs said.
He said that the sanctions were beginning to have an impact, “or else the Iranian government would not be changing its position so often about discussing its program.”