WH cautious over Iran offer

• Tweet

WASHINGTON, May 30 (UPI) -- The White House expressed caution Tuesday over Iran's expressed willingness to restart negotiations over its nuclear program.

Spokeswoman Dana Perino said the United States intends to continue to pursue obtaining United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran until it matches actions with words.

"They need to suspend (nuclear) enrichment and processing activities, and we can go from there," she said. Until then, "we are going to continue on our stated course."

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tuesday Iran was "ready to respond positively" to a call by the Nonaligned Movement for resumption of negotiations with the three European states spearheading efforts to get Iran to comply with nuclear non-proliferation mandates and to abandon its proclaimed civilian nuclear power program.

The United States, which agreed to the European lead amid pressure from allies, suspects the program is a cover for nuclear weapons development.

The Security Council gave Iran until the end of last month to stop reprocessing activities it had resumed despite earlier promises not to do so.