Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today insisted that despite the administration having rejected an offer for direct talks with Iran just days ago, they remain “open to engagement” with the Iranian government on the nuclear issue.
“We remain open to engagement, but they do know what they have to do,” Clinton insisted in an interview with the New York Times. She insisted though that even if such talks were to happen, the US would continue to pursue additional sanctions against Iran.
President Obama made similar comments on Thursday, telling a gathering of “senior media figures” that he was open to the theory of talks with Iran and that there was a “path” to such talks taking place.
All of this supposed openness comes after the State Department slammed an offer of talks on Tuesday, saying that Iran wasn’t really serious. Instead of accepting the offer of direct talks, the US used the occasion to announce more sanctions against Iran.