Spokesman: No planned U.S.-Iran meeting at int´l conference on Afghanistan

Source: Xinhua | 03-19-2009 08:05

WASHINGTON, March 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is not planning to have a separate meeting with Iran's delegation at an international conference on Afghanistan in the Hague on March 31, the State Department said Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said that "This conference is more than just the U.S. and Iran. It's about Afghanistan and the situation in the region. And that's where we need to keep our focus."

Wood said that there will be no planned bilateral talks between Clinton and her counterpart from Tehran although he did not rule out a possible exchanges of words between Clinton and Iranian officials.

"I will not rule out the fact that there could be some kind of a greeting of some type, but there's no plan, as far as I know, for there to be a meeting between the two delegations," Wood noted.

The United States, which severed its ties with Iran in 1980, has been at odds with Tehran on, among others, its support for militant groups and disputed nuclear activities.

Iran denies the U.S. charges, and insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. 　

Editor:Zhang Pengfei