US President Barack Obama said Washington was not ready to open an embassy in Iran due to differences over nuclear policy, a position that contrasts with his new approach to Cuba. "I never say never, but I think these things have to go in steps," Obama said in an interview with National Public Radio that aired Monday, regarding re-opening the long-shuttered US mission in Tehran.
"Cuba is a circumstance in which for 50 years, we have done the same thing over and over again, and there hadn't been any change," Obama told NPR December 19 in the White House, shortly before he flew to Hawaii for a family vacation.
"And the question was, should we try something different with a relatively tiny country that doesn't pose any significant threat to us or our allies?"
By contrast, Obama said, Iran is "a large, sophisticated country that has a track record of state-sponsored terrorism, that we know was attempting to develop a nuclear weapon - at least the component parts that would be required to develop a nuclear weapon."
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