Saudi official urges U.S. to talk to Iran

A senior official of Saudi Arabia said here on Wednesday that the United States should open up negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.

"I think for the United States not to talk to Iran is a mistake," Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the U.S., told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"We think that negotiation and talking to people is more important than shutting the door on them," Al-Faisal told the Washington think tank.

"We've found, in our experience, that when we did not talk to Iran --our relations were broken for a period of a few years in the '90s -- we had more troubles with each other," the ambassador said.

He said that Saudi Arabia talked to Iran "frequently and frankly" about a range of issues including proliferation, and that he encouraged the United States to take the same approach.

"We hope that, by talking to them, that we'll be able to at least open their eyes," the ambassador said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is visiting the Middle East, said the international community had no choice but to impose sanctions on Iran if it fails to suspend enrichment as demanded under an Aug. 31 UN deadline.

Source: Xinhua