The US does not expect any "serious response" from Iran to halt its controversial nuclear programme unless the UN Security Council slaps Tehran with additional sanctions, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday. Flanked by new British Foreign Secretary William Hague, Clinton said she is not expecting much from the this weekend's visit of the Turkish Prime Minister and Brazilian President to Tehran; as both the United States and Britain believe Iran is determined to pursue its nuclear weapons programme.
"I have told my counterparts in many capitals around the world that I believe that we will not get any serious response out of the Iranians until after the Security Council acts," Clinton asserted. "I have long advocated that the European Union should adopt financial sanctions of the kind the United States has implemented on this issue. But, of course, we'll have to get into the specifics of that once the Security Council resolution is passed," Hague said. Observing there is no magic to this approach, he said it requires persistence and determination and united strength in the international community to tackle this problem.
"And so we will buttress that as, indeed, our predecessors have tried to do. We have never ruled out supporting, in the future, military action, but we're not calling for it," Hague said in response to a question."It is precisely because we want to see this matter settled peacefully and rapidly that we call for the sanctions, that we support the idea of a Security Council resolution. That is our perspective on it," he said supporting the US stand on Iran.
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