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Summary
The United States will call for even stricter sanctions on Iran to try to change the behavior of the regime, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a TV interview broadcast in Venezuela. Washington remained concerned about what she called Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, which could be very destabilizing in the Middle East and beyond, Clinton told a private television network. Tehran contends that its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful, civilian energy purposes, as it defies a UN Security Council demand to halt uranium enrichment. We would ask the world to join us in imposing even stricter sanctions on Iran to try to change the behavior of the regime, Clinton said in the interview, which was broadcast late Tuesday. And noting the unrest in Iran since the disputed June presidential election, she added: We have seen in the last weeks that Iran has not respected its own democracy. It has taken actions against his own citizens for peacefully protesting, she said, referring to street demonstrations challenging the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I think it is not a very smart position to ally with a regime that is being rejected by so many of their own people, Clinton said in the interview. The administration of President Barack Obama, Clinton added, thinks it is not in the best interest of the world to be doing business with Iran that would promote the regime... that is not smart. Clinton also expressed renewed concern at the political and economic alliance between Venezuela and Iran, although she noted Washington was attempting to lower the temperature in the country's often tense relations. The South American country's strongman leader Hugo Chavez, a fierce US critic, is Iran's main ally in the region. Chavez has defended Ahmadinejad numerous times in recent weeks. We call on the world to respect Iran because there are attempts to undermine the strength of the Iranian revolution, Chavez said last month after the election.
