MANAMA (Bahrain) - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton held out hope Friday that Iran will show in talks next week a willingness to prove the peaceful intentions of its nuclear program, and Bahrain's top diplomat declared that the Middle East "can never live with" a nuclear-armed Iran. In a joint news conference Bahrain's foreign minister, Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Clinton said, "We hope that Iran will respond" to concerns expressed by Bahrain and others that its nuclear program not be turned into a weapons program. She noted that Iran has agreed to resume talks with the U.S., China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany over its nuclear program after a one-year interruption. "Perhaps the Iranians, with their return to the talks in Geneva starting Monday, will engage seriously with the international community on what is a concern shared by nations on every continent but most particularly here in the region," she said. The Bahraini foreign minister was blunt and unequivocal in his insistence that Iran must not move toward a nuclear bomb-making capability. He said no one questions Iran's right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. "When it comes to taking that power to developing into a cycle for weapon-grade (nuclear material), that is something that we can never accept and we can never live with in this region," he said. "We've said it to Iran and we've heard it from all." He was responding to a reporter's question about a WikiLeaks disclosure of a secret State Department cable that quoted Bahrain's King Hamad as saying Iran must be stopped from getting the bomb. Clinton is in Bahrain to attend an international security conference where Iran's nuclear program and its regional political role are expected to be major topics of discussion.
