U.S. urges non-aligned nations to press Iran on nukes

 (JTA) -- The Obama administration is urging countries attending the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran next week to press Iran to comply with demands to make its nuclear program more transparent.

The United States, along with Israel and a number of Jewish groups, has said it favors a boycott of the triennial summit, being held this year in Iran, because of the Islamic Republic's failure to cooperate with the international community and make transparent what Western powers suspect is a nuclear weapons program.

Absent such a boycott, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, participants should urge Iran to comply with demands that would increase and expand the U.N. nuclear inspector regimen and reduce uranium enrichment.

"We would hope and expect that those who choose to go will take the opportunity of any meetings that they have with Iran’s leaders to press them to come back into compliance, to use the opportunity of the P5+1 talks to come clean about their nuclear program, and take up all of the other concerns that the international community has about Iran’s behavior," she said.

P5+1 refers to the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Russia, China, the United States, Britain, and France -- as well as Germany, the major powers that have been negotiating with Iran.

Israeli leaders have indicated that they see such negotiations as now exhausted, and are urging Western leaders to take more drastic steps, including warning Iran of specific military consequences to its non-compliance.