Clinton calls for ’even stricter’ Iran sanctions

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 Caracas.

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 Caracas.

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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 the private television network Globovision.

Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful, civilian energy purposes.

“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 on Tuesday.

And noting the unrest in the country 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 the mass demonstrations in response to the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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.”