The United States rejected on Friday UN nuclear chief Mohamed
ElBaradei's suggestion that Washington is preparing a military
attack on Iran.
"We are working with our partners in other parts of the world to
deal with the consequences of Iran's state sponsorship of
terrorism," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told
reporters.
But "We're pursuing a diplomatic track with Iran. We are
engaging with our Security Council partners and the IAEA. We've
been doing so for a number of years," Casey noted.
"There is no change in US policy," the spokesman said.
"While no US president ever takes any options off the table, our
approach has been and is and as far as I know, until you hear
differently from the president, will continue to be one of using
diplomacy, using all the tools in the diplomatic tool box to try
and convince Iran to change its behavior."
Casey made the remarks after Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the
International Atomic Energy Agency, suggested that Washington is
preparing a military attack on Iran.
ElBaradei told reporters in Vienna that "Iran is moving with its
(uranium) enrichment without us doing the robust verification
required."
But, the UN nuclear chief said "On the other hand I see war
drums (from those) who are basically saying the solution is to bomb
Iran," which is believed to be an implicit attack on the Bush
administration which has refused to rule out military action
against Iran.
"I would certainly hope that those kinds of comments wouldn't be
referred to the United States, because they certainly wouldn't be
true," said Casey.
(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2007)
