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Iran evading responsibility, says US

April 29, 2010 08:45 IST

Alleging that Iran is evading its international responsibilities, the Obama Administration has accused Tehran of indulging in "rope-a-dope diplomacy".

"While Iran is travelling around the world doing what I would call, to use a boxing term, rope-a-dope diplomacy, trying to evade responsibility, we are in New York committed to the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), strengthening the global regime, and we want to see countries play a constructive role," Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P J Crowley said.

"Iran is not playing a constructive role and it wouldn't surprise us if they continue on this same path. And if they do, the leadership of Iran will be further isolating its country and its people," Crowley told reporters at his daily press briefing.

"This is what the international community is clearly telling Iran it needs to do. If Iran plays by the approach it's taken -- I mean, it's going around the world right now trying to evade responsibility, trying to demonstrate a face of being cooperative. It's not," Crowley said.

"It has yet, as the Secretary (of State) said yesterday, with the recent meeting between the Iranian foreign minister and Director General Amano of the IAEA nothing new in that meeting," he said.

Referring to the next week's NPT review conference in New York, Crowley said the US is committed to a nonproliferation regime.

"We are demonstrating through what we have done throughout the Obama Administration's 15 months in office - the START negotiation, the recent Nuclear Security Summit," he said.

On the other hand, Iran had its own meeting and couldn't even get nations to agree to its final statement, he added.

"So we think there is wind at our backs. We're making the case. Other countries are seeing that Iran is offering nothing in its conversations with various countries around the world. We continue to work in New York on a strong sanctions resolution. We are working with the Congress on prospectively other actions that we will take domestically," Crowley said.

The state department official said the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has applied for a US visa to attend the NPT Review Conference in New York next week. "Should he come, we want to see him play a constructive role in the upcoming NPT Review Conference," he said.

"This is about our commitment to strengthening Non-proliferation Treaty, strengthening capabilities and resources available to the IAEA. We want to see nations reaffirm their commitment to the treaty, and we would certainly hope that President Ahmadinejad or whoever leads the Iranian delegation will come to New York prepared to make that commitment," he said.

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