US lacks logic for talks to resolve Iran nuclear issue: Jalili

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili slams the US carrot-and-stick policy on Tehran, saying Washington lacks the necessary logic to engage in talks to resolve Iran nuclear issue.

“The US resort to pressure in parallel to [invitation for] talks shows the weakness of that [US] government’s logic and the use of force instead of reasoning,” Jalili said in a meeting with Tunisian Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Moncef Ben Salem in Tehran on Monday.

He added that following multifaceted talks between Iran and the P5+1 group — China, Russia, France, Britain, and the US plus Germany – in the Russian capital, Moscow, in June, the international community expects these countries to return to the negotiating table with a rational response to Tehran’s proposals.

The US should be held accountable for the six-month delay in the P5+1’s response to Iran’s proposals, Jalili pointed out.

Jalili made the remarks after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday expressed Washington’s readiness to hold bilateral talks with Iran over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

“We are working on the P5+1 and making our willingness known that we are ready to have a bilateral discussion if they are…ready to engage,” Clinton said.

Her comments come only a day after the US Senate approved a new round of sanctions against Iran’s energy, port, shipping and shipbuilding sectors as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and its chief Ezzatollah Zarghami are also targets of the new bans.

Under the new rules, the United States would sanction anyone selling or supplying certain commodities to Iran — including graphite, aluminum, steel, and some industrial software — that are relevant to the country’s shipbuilding and nuclear sectors.