U.S. Open to Talks With Iran at ‘Range of Levels’
by JNS.org
JNS.org – U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said Friday that while a face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the upcoming U.N. General Assembly has not been scheduled, America is “open to bilateral discussions with the Iranians at a range of levels.”
Rhodes told reporters that the U.S. and Israel are “cooperating closely” on the issue of the Iranian nuclear program, and reiterated the Obama Administration position that there “remains time” to pursue a diplomatic track on Iran.
“I think given Israel’s relationship with the United States and given our shared interests in preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, we’ll continue to closely cooperate on our assessment. Again, ours is that there remains time to pursue a diplomatic path,” he said.
The German newspaper Der Spiegel reported last week that Rouhani is considering dismantling Iran’s deep underground nuclear site of Fordo. But Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, denied the report.