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Rice rules out US but not Israeli military strike on Iran

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Feb 4, IRNA -- US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied 
Friday that the US was currently considering military action against 
Iran but refused to say whether Washington would seek to deter 
threatened Israeli strikes. 
US military strikes against Iran was "simply not on the agenda 
at this point of time," Rice said at a joint news conference with 
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in London. 
"We feel particularly in regard to the nuclear issue that, while 
no-one ever asks an American President to take any option off his 
table there are plenty of diplomatic means to get the Iranians to 
fulfill their international obligations," she said. 
Rice was paying her first visit to London at the beginning of 
a worldwind tour of Europe and the Middle East following her 
ratification as Secretary of State last week. 
She insisted that Britain and America share a "unity of purpose" 
on the dangers posed by Iran developing nuclear weapons and gave the 
clearest indications yet that the US supported last November`s Paris 
Agreement aimed at finding a political solution. 
"The European three have given the Iranians an opportunity to live
up to their international obligations. They ought to take it," the US 
Secretary of State said. 
She rejected that there were divisions with the EU over its 
diplomatic approach, said that she found "very little difference 
between us in the challenges we face" in dealing with the Iranian 
government. 
"We have many diplomatic tools still at our disposal and we intend
to use them fully," said Rice, who early met Prime Minister Tony Blair
over breakfast. 
Straw also played down differences, saying any success the EU 
initiative had was only made possible by an international consensus 
and "fundamental to that international consensus has been the support 
we have received from the United States." 
But during the press conference, Rice refused to say whether the 
United States supports a change of government in Iran. She and Straw 
also refused to answer whether they would deter or encourage an 
Israeli strike on Iran. 
HC/1771