remarks by assistant secretary philip crowley on
iranian nuclear program
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
September 29, 2009
Excerpts
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QUESTION: Thank you. I’d like to come back to the Iranian issue again, and for that matter, to Turkey. The Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has recently said that Iran’s nuclear program is only for peaceful means. So it sounds like that, you know, this non-permanent member of the UN Security Council does not seem to agree with what the U.S. is suggesting about the Iranian nuclear program. I’m asking you whether you see eye-to-eye with Turkey on this Iranian issue.
MR. CROWLEY: Well, if the issue – if the question is whether the United States is willing to – based on what we know, whether we view this as a peaceful program, we have concerns. And as Secretary Clinton said on Sunday, it’s not just that Iran asserts that it’s a peaceful program; because of the concerns not only the United States has, but also the international community, then Iran now has the obligation to convince the international community of its peaceful intentions. This should be feasible.
But as we talked about yesterday, if Iran’s program is peaceful, then why has it gone to great lengths in this recent reactor disclosed in Qom and in other places – why have they gone to great lengths to hide what they’re doing? If you have a peaceful program, there should be nothing to hide. That will be among our primary points on Thursday. It’s time for Iran to come clean. It’s time for them to constructively, positively, affirmatively show and demonstrate through – by opening up their program to meaningful international inspection under the IAEA and take other steps, including disclosure of information, access to individuals, so that the international community can be convinced of Iran’s peaceful intentions.
QUESTION: Right. But Mr. Erdogan’s statements came after this announcement at Pittsburgh. So I’m just, you know, asking you as a member of the international community, as Turkey is a member of the international community --
MR. CROWLEY: I understand that.
QUESTION: -- do you feel like that it is the Iranians to convince Turkey, or it is the United States or the P-5+1 to convince Turkey at this time?
MR. CROWLEY: Well, I think it would be fair to say the international community has concerns about the nature of Iran’s nuclear program. It will be up to each individual country to evaluate, based on the information that’s available, whether they’re satisfied. Is the United States satisfied with what we know about Iran’s nuclear program? The answer is no. We have great concerns, and those concerns are shared broadly across the international community, including by our fellow European and other members of the P-5+1. So that’s precisely why we have encouraged this meeting. It’s precisely why the United States has decided to actually join this meeting, so that we, in fact, can have the kind of meaningful interaction with Iran and begin a process through which we can satisfy the concerns that we have and that others in the international community has.
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