Following the Iranian officials' remarks over the dual approach of the United States towards the nuclear program of Iran, The United States on Thursday urged Iran to engage in "substantive" talks with the world powers later this month in return for eased sanctions.
"What's most important is that they come prepared to really engage on the substance," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, adding that "The burden of these sanctions could be eased if they made a decision to engage with us substantively."
"We've always said that action on the Iranian side would be matched by action on our side, so it's really up to Iran to engage if it wants to see sanctions eased," she added.
Iran and the six powers held three rounds of talks last year but made no breakthrough.
Iran has agreed to start fresh talks with the so-called P5+1 group of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany on Feb. 26 in Kazakhstan.
"We've been disappointed that those have not yet resulted in real, concrete progress," Nuland said, arguing that "So as long as Iran fails to address the concerns of the international community, we're going to have to continue to increase the pressure and isolate Iran internationally."
Also, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Moscow does not expect any major breakthrough to be made at a meeting between Iran and six major world powers over Tehran's controversial nuclear program scheduled for later this month.
"We have no overestimated expectations, but the very fact that a full-fledged meeting of the Sextet with Iran will happen is important," ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters in Moscow.
"The expectations are one thing but the results could be different," the Russian spokesman was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
Iran insists on the peaceful nature of its nuclear program, while the West regards it as a cover for making nuclear weapons.
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