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Rice: Iran can't delay nuke accountability
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-10 11:36 US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran
on Wednesday that it risks U.N. action if negotiations with Europe over its
nuclear program don't progress.
Nearing the end of a fence-mending tour of European
allies, Rice also said she encountered "a kind of coming together of common
purpose" on another troubled front: Iraq. Several countries committed to help
train Iraqi forces and participate in an upcoming NATO training mission.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (right) and
Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker pose for the media upon
arrival at Senningen Castle in Senningen, Luxembourg, Wednesday, Feb.9,
2005. [AP] |
"I heard devotion to helping more on the reconstruction side and, most
importantly, to helping with the training of the security forces inside of Iraq,
outside of Iraq, in the NATO training mission," the secretary said.
Rice said the United States had set no deadline on the Iran talks, but that
they cannot go on forever. She added the Bush administration had not changed its
view that the United Nations should step in to get tougher on Iran.
In Washington, President Bush said the Iranians needed to know that the free
world was working together to send a clear message: Don't develop a nuclear
weapon.
"And the reason we're sending that message is because Iran with a nuclear
weapon would be a very destabilizing force in the world," Bush said.
"I think the message is there," Rice said at a news conference at NATO
headquarters. "The Iranians need to get that message," she said, adding that
Tehran should know that "there are other steps" the international community can
take.
Iran says its program is for nuclear power, not weapons. In Tehran, President
Mohammad Khatami said Wednesday that no Iranian government would ever abandon
the progress the country has made in developing peaceful nuclear technology.
The comment did not augur well for negotiations with three European countries
that are trying to persuade Iran to cease permanently the enrichment of uranium
and have promised economic and technological aid in return. Khatami said that if
the talks with Britain, France and Germany fail, his government will not be
bound by its undertaking to suspend enrichment.
"If other parties are not committed to their promises, we will not be
committed to our promises at all," Khatami told a meeting of foreign diplomats.
The Bush administration has long viewed the European process as futile and
thinks Iran is stalling.
"They need to hear that the discussions that they are in with the Europeans
are not going to be a kind of way station where they are allowed to continue
their activities, that there's going to be an end to this and that they are
going to end up in the Security Council," Rice said earlier Wednesday.
Those remarks, in an interview with Fox News, also urged Britain, France and
Germany to put pressure on Iran. Rice has spoken in tough terms about Iran
during this trip, but had been careful to leave any criticism of the Europeans
unspoken.
"Iranians need to hear that if they are unwilling to take the deal, really,
that the Europeans are giving ... then the Security Council referral looms," she
said. "I don't know that anyone has said that as clearly as they should to the
Iranians."
Asked at Wednesday's news conference how long diplomatic efforts should
continue, Rice replied, "We've set no deadline, no timeline. The Iranians know
what they need to do."
Over the past week, Rice visited Britain, France and Germany, the three
countries talking to Iran. The United States has kept the European diplomacy
toward Iran at arm's length, and Rice's remarks Wednesday underscored that the
United States and the Europeans still did not see eye to eye.
The three European countries are reluctant to take the matter to the United
Nations before making further efforts at negotiation.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier used a Tuesday night news conference
with Rice in Paris to repeat that France and the other European participants
wanted to let diplomacy run its course.
"We believe this political and diplomatic work with which we are committed is
by far the best way," Barnier said. "We need the confidence and the support of
the United States in this very delicate phase ... and that's ... the message we
conveyed to Condi Rice."
Rice did not respond directly during the joint press conference, instead
putting the onus on Iran to comply with international compacts governing
civilian and military nuclear programs. She also thanked the three nations for
their efforts.
Iran has been a topic for most of Rice's meetings with European politicians.
European governments have generally maintained closer ties to Iran in the more
than two decades since an Islamic government took power.
Some Europeans suspect that the United States intends to attack Iran during
Bush's second term. Rice said at the start of her trip, in London, that an
attack is "not on the agenda" now.
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