BEIRUT AND TEHRAN — The European Union's foreign policy chief on Friday called for a meeting of world powers with Iran "at the earliest possible opportunity" to discuss Tehran's nuclear intentions, even as the country's supreme leader insisted Iran would not halt its nuclear development program.
A State Department spokesman said later that the U.S. would participate in such a face-to-face meeting because "ultimately, the only way that we feel we're going to be able to resolve these issues is to have a meeting."
The remarks came hours after Iran's top spiritual and political authority said in a Friday prayer sermon that his government would continue its nuclear program despite pressure from Western nations that accuse it of trying to build bombs.
Speaking at Tehran University, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also derided the West, especially Britain, for what he termed interference in Iran's affairs. Iran's nuclear program will come under scrutiny during the United Nations General Assembly and Group of 20 nations meetings this month.
In response to the West's offer of talks over sensitive aspects of its nuclear program, Iran submitted a proposal Wednesday that said it was "prepared to enter into dialogue and negotiation" on a wide variety of topics, including nuclear technology.
But it did not specifically broach the subject of its uranium enrichment program, which the West and Israel allege is the cornerstone of an eventual nuclear weapons program. Instead, Iran, which says its nuclear program is exclusively for civilian energy purposes, expressed readiness to take part in talks about "preventing development and proliferation of nuclear, chemical and [biological] weapons," according to a copy of the document published by the ProPublica news website.
Though some U.S. and European officials had already dismissed the Iranian offer as irrelevant, Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, said he was studying the proposal and urged quick talks.
"It's not just a meeting for meeting's sake," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. "It is a meeting to be able to see if Iran is willing to engage seriously on these issues."
Crowley said Iran's proposal "clearly . . . does not reply" to the West's concerns. But, he added, "we wish to have a direct dialogue with Iran. We believe, and the president has said repeatedly, that we feel this is the way in which we will be able to, and hopefully can, resolve these issues."
