Khamenei Says Obama’s Comments ‘Good Words’

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said President Barack Obama’s comments that there is room for diplomacy in the international community’s standoff with Iran are “good words.”

Obama said that there’s a “window of opportunity where this can still be resolved diplomatically.” Sanctions may also compel Iran to give up any effort to develop nuclear weapons, he told reporters at the White House yesterday.

“These words are good words and are a sign of no longer being in delusion,” Khamenei said in Tehran today, according to the website of the state television station, which broadcast the remarks. “But the U.S. president continued to talk about sanctions against Iran to bring the people to their knees and this part of the statement is still delusional” about the nuclear issue.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said the U.S. will continue putting pressure on the Iranian government until it takes action to meet international demands.

“The president’s policy towards Iran is focused in a very clear-eyed way on behavior” rather than rhetoric, Carney said at a White House briefing. “The pressure on Iran will continue. The ratcheting up of sanctions will continue.”
Tougher Sanctions

The U.S. and the European Union have stiffened economic sanctions against Iran over concerns that the government in Tehran is pursuing atomic weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Nuclear powers said they are ready for sustained talks with Iran and want the Persian Gulf nation to grant United Nations inspectors access to its secret Parchin military installation.

“We urge Iran to fulfill its undertaking to grant access to Parchin,” the UN’s five permanent Security Council members plus Germany said in a statement issued in Vienna today. “We call on Iran to enter, without pre-conditions, into a sustained process of serious dialogue, which will produce concrete results.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew J. Barden in Dubai at [email protected]