LOC09:32
06:32 GMT
WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (KUNA) -- The permanent five members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany remain "far apart" on core issues with Iran on its nuclear issue, including size and scope of uranium enrichment capacity, U.S. Under-Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman said.
"I fully expect in the days ahead that Iran will try to convince the world that on this pivotal matter, the status quo, or its equivalent, should be acceptable," Sherman said in a speech on "U.S. Policy in the Middle East," late on Tuesday, at Georgetown University.
"It is not," she said. "If it were, we would not be involved in this difficult and very painstaking negotiation."
Sherman, who is leading the U.S. negotiating team in the talks, said the world will agree to suspend and then lift sanctions on Iran only if Tehran takes "convincing and verifiable steps to show that its nuclear program is and will remain entirely peaceful."
"We must be confident that any effort by Tehran to break out of its obligations will be so visible and time-consuming that the attempt would have no chance of success," she said. "The ideas we have presented to Iran uphold this standard, and are also fair, flexible and consistent with Iran's civilian nuclear needs and scientific know-how."
"As should be obvious, a peaceful solution of this issue is highly desirable because, compared to any alternative, a diplomatic outcome is more likely to be permanent and less likely to generate new risks," Sherman said in her remarks at the renowned university. The talks with Iran have been extended through November 24.
Sherman also spoke about the other major challenges in the Middle East today, including the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the future of Iraq and Syria, peace between Israelis and Palestinians and uncertainty in Libya.
"There is a need throughout the Middle East to change course and begin moving in the direction of common ground," Sherman said. "But quite frankly, for that to happen, the region's leaders must live up to their responsibilities. The international community must put aside its divisions and exert a more positive influence, and the United States must help to show the way."
U.S. policy "is to assist those who believe, as we do, that people of different nationalities, ethnicities and creeds can live alongside one another constructively and in peace," Sherman said. "That is our vision for the future. The Middle East, like other parts of the world, has its share of dividers and destroyers. The United States casts its lot with the problem solvers, the healers and the builders."
Some observers will argue that any vision of inter-cultural and inter-religious cooperation in the Middle East is an illusion, she said. "We reject that, because the real illusion is to believe that lasting stability without compromise is possible," she added.
In a place with the Middle East's history, geography and demographics, "a healthy dose of tolerance and inter-communal give and take is essential," Sherman said. "Efforts by one group to dominate all others, whether that group is a political party or an ethnic or religious faction, will never succeed for long. To be guided by hate is to go nowhere. That is the reality, and it is a fact on view today in many parts of the Middle East." (end)
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