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21:31 GMT
WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (KUNA) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sent on
Friday a message to the Iranian regime that President Barack Obama's
administration is ready to negotiate.
"My statement is a clear statement: We are prepared to let diplomacy be the
victor in this confrontation over their nuclear program. The president has
made it clear that he is prepared to talk about a peaceful nuclear program.
Iran has a choice", said Kerry after meeting with Canadian foreign minister
John Baird.
"They have to prove to the world that it is peaceful, and we are prepared
to sit reasonably and negotiate how they can do that and how we can all be
satisfied with respect to the United Nations' requirements in the effort to do
that, or they can choose to be more isolated. It's really their choice, not
ours, as to which way they want to go," he added.
Kerry noted that President Obama have "made it clear that his preference is
to have a diplomatic solution. But if he cannot get there, he is prepared to
do whatever is necessary to make certain that Iran does not have a nuclear
weapon".
On the question of arming the Syrian rebels and how the first term of the
Obama administration was approaching this issue, Kerry replied "this is a new
administration now, the president's second term. I am a new secretary of
state, and we're going forwards from this point."
"My sense right now is that everybody in the administration, and people in
other parts of the world, are deeply distressed by the continued violence in
Syria", he added.
Kerry noted that there is "too much killing, there is too much violence,
and we obviously want to try to find a way forward. There are serious
questions about Al-Nusra and AQI, al-Qaida from Iraq, coming in and other
violent groups on the ground. It is a very complicated and very dangerous
situation. And everybody understands it is a place that has chemical weapons,
and we are deeply concerned about that".
"We are evaluating now. We are taking a look at what steps, if any,
diplomatic, particularly, might be able to be taken in an effort to try to
reduce that violence and deal with the situation," he concluded. (end)
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