LOC21:48
18:48 GMT
WASHINGTON, May 21 (KUNA) -- The United States renewed on Thursday its
commitment to diplomatically engage with Iran after Tehran test-fired
yesterday a medium-range missile.
"We are still committed to a diplomatic resolution with Iran. We are still
willing to try and go down the route of engagement, but we also will not allow
Iran to use talks as an excuse to continue pursuit of a nuclear weapons
capability", said State Department spokesperson Ian Kelly.
Iran appears to have successfully test-fired a medium-range missile called
Sejil-2 with a range of at least 2,000 kilometers yesterday in a show of
force announced by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the northern city
of Semnan, near the launch site.
"We continue to believe that the best approach to this is multilateral
engagement. That we have not given up on it. But our bottom line remains that
we have to get to a point where Iran agrees to give up its pursuit of nuclear
weapons", noted Kelly.
"We think the best way to do that is through multilateral leverage",
concluded Kelly. (end)
jm.tg
KUNA 212148 May 09NNNN