Obama loses patience with Iran

Nov. 15 – US President Barack Obama says time is running out for Iran to accept a nuclear deal

US President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Dimitri Medvedev meeting in Singapore on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit, but the focus of their talks was on Iran.

Obama said he’s losing patience with Iran delaying signing off on a deal to curb its nuclear ambitions.

“We are now running out of time with respect to that approach. And so I discussed with President Medvedev the fact that we have to continue to maintain urgency and that our previous discussions confirming the need for a dual-track approach are still the right approach to take.”

Global powers are attempting to persuade Tehran to suspend its nuclear enrichment program in exchange for economic and political incentives.

Iran is procrastinating over the UN-brokered deal to send it’s uranium abroad for processing.

“Unfortunately, so far at least, Iran appears to have been unable to say yes to what everyone acknowledges is a creative and constructive approach.”

The US does not want yet more talks with Iran and, along with Russia, is threatening a tougher line.

“We believe that the United States and Russia will continue to urge Iran to take the path that leads them to meeting its international obligations. We can’t count on that and we will begin to discuss and prepare for these other pathways.”

Neither Obama nor Medvedev spelt out what these “other pathways” might be, but in October Iran narrowly escaped sanctions targetting its oil sector.

Iran says it’s nuclear programme is only for energy, but secrecy over enrichment sites has raised suspicions it is in fact covertly developing nuclear weapons.

Georgina Cooper, Reuters