The White House says Iran is facing an unprecedented degree of isolation, with major world powers united in their opposition to Tehran getting a nuclear weapon.
U.S. national security adviser Tom Donilon told reporters that Russia, China, and the United States share a similar goal of not seeing the Iranians move toward the development of nuclear weapons.
Donilon was speaking on the last day of Obama’s nine-day Asia tour, which is ending with his participation in an East Asia Summit meeting in the Indonesian island of Bali.
He was echoing a statement by U.S. President Barack Obama from November 13.
The U.S. statement came soon after passage by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog’s governing board of a resolution drawn up by major international powers to increase pressure on Iran over its secretive nuclear program.
Tehran responded by calling the move a “historic mistake” that threatens to derail cooperation between Iran and the nuclear oversight agency.
Obama discussed Iran’s nuclear ambitions with Russian and Chinese leaders last week during an Asia-Pacific summit that he hosted in Hawaii.
The 35-nation board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voted 32-to-2 to back the measure at the end of a two-day meeting in the Austrian capital, Vienna. Indonesia abstained and Cuba and Ecuador opposed the text.
compiled from Reuters reports