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SUS Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Wednesday for Iran to make “concrete commitments” on its nuclear program at upcoming talks with major powers — the first in more than a year.

Hillary said that Iran’s talks expected this month with the six powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — offered a chance to resolve the nuclear row diplomatically but would not be “open-ended.”

“We expect to see concrete commitments from Iran that it will come clean on its nuclear program and live up to its international obligations,” Hillary said as she received an award at the Virginia Military Institute.

“In the meantime we are maintaining a full-court press against the regime, enforcing the most comprehensive package of sanctions in history and further isolating Iran from the international community,” she said.

“This sustained pressure is bringing Iran’s leaders back to the negotiating table, and we hope that it will result in a plan of action that will resolve our disagreements peacefully,” she said.

President Barack Obama’s administration has warned about the risks of military action against Iran and has intensified economic pressure by coaxing countries not to buy Tehran’s oil, its main moneymaker.

Israel has voiced growing impatience over Iran, which it fears is developing a nuclear bomb. The Islamic republic says that its controversial uranium enrichment is for peaceful purposes.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said last week that the talks would open on April 13. Clinton gave the same date and said that the venue would be Istanbul.

But Russia said yesterday that the date and venue have not been definitively set. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the United States was “awaiting Iranian confirmation” on the talks.

The last round of talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 group was held in Istanbul in January 2011 and ended in failure. Geneva hosted the round before that in late 2010.

Source: Zee News