WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that multilateral talks with Iran in Geneva on Thursday were “productive” but added she wants Iran to take concrete actions.
“It was a productive day, but the proof of that has not yet come to fruition,” Clinton told reporters after the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany held talks with Iran in Geneva. She said she had discussed details of the meeting with William Burns, her envoy in Geneva.
She was careful about commenting on recent actions in which Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki paid a rare visit to Washington and the government in Tehran allowed foreign diplomats access to three detained US hikers.
“I would count it as a positive sign when it moves from gestures and engagement to actions and results,” she said when asked how such gestures affected the relationship with Iran.
“We’re not talking for the sake of talking,” Clinton added. “We want to see concrete actions and positive results. And I think that today’s meeting opened the door, but let’s see what happens.”
Iran said it would let UN nuclear watchdog inspectors visit the new enrichment plant at Qom, probably within two weeks, said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Solana said the world powers and Iran had agreed in principle on Iranian uranium being sent to a third country to be enriched and used for a research reactor in Tehran.
The talks between Burns and Iran’s top negotiator Saeed Jalili were the first direct discussions on bilateral issues since both countries broke off diplomatic relations 30 years ago.
