25 April 2006
Rice Remains "Hopeful" Diplomacy Will Work with Iran
Diplomatic course on nuclear program "just beginning," she says
By Jeffrey Thomas
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded April 25 to the latest statements of defiance from Iran over its nuclear program by saying she remains hopeful diplomacy eventually will succeed.
“Whenever the Iranian regime makes statements of this kind it only deepens its own isolation, because of course the international community has spoken through a [United Nations] Security Council presidential statement that says that Iran should stop its enrichment activities, to suspend them and return to negotiations,” Rice said in an interview with Greek State Broadcasting. (See related article.)
“And I'm still hopeful that Iran recognizes that indeed there will be further steps by the Security Council, particularly if it continues this defiance,” she said.
According to news reports, Iran’s president has threatened to end his country’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency if the U.N. Security Council imposes sanctions on Iran for defying the council’s April 28 deadline for stopping uranium enrichment.
Rice said the world must remain united in opposing Iran's nuclear ambitions. “If we remain united and make clear to Iran that there is only one course and that is to accept the will of the international community, then I think Iran will have no choice but to do so, because it is really risking great isolation from the international community,” she said.
She said the U.N. Security Council “is, by far, the most important vehicle” for dealing with Iran.
“But if we cannot achieve unity in the Security Council there may be states that wish to take other actions. And by that I mean through financial or other means,” she added.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said April 25 that the five permanent members of the Security Council would begin meetings in anticipation of the report from IAEA Director General Mohammed ElBaradei, due April 28, to discuss potential next steps.
Speaking to journalists outside the Security Council, Bolton said that the United States believes "the next step is a Chapter 7 resolution making mandatory the existing IAEA resolutions," not a resolution imposing sanctions.
The United States, the ambassador said, is "going to take it one step at a time."
Security Council action under the U.N. Charter is the only way to make compliance mandatory on all U.N. members, Bolton said.
In addition to seeking consensus on Iran within the Security Council, the United States has been urging individual countries to impose sanctions on their own against Iran.
U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns recently traveled to Moscow, where he called for halting the flow of all dual-use technology to Iran that could be used in its nuclear industry, stopping all foreign assistance to the Iranian nuclear industry and cutting off the sale of all weapons to Iran. Burns specifically asked Russia to cancel its potential sale of Tor-1 missiles to Iran. (See related article.)
The United States, Rice said, believes “the diplomatic course and the many, many tools that we have on the diplomatic side will ultimately succeed.”
Asked when the time for diplomacy with Iran will be over, Rice said, “I don't see that the diplomacy has run its course by any stretch of the imagination. We're really just beginning in the diplomatic course.”
Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte said in a speech April 20 that Iran will have to enrich uranium for several more years before it has enough fissile material to build a nuclear weapon. He also said, however, that intelligence analysts continue to believe that Iran is determined to acquire a nuclear weapons capability. (See related article.)
Rice also responded to questions regarding Turkey’s drive for membership in the European Union, the need for a resolution of the 32-year conflict on Cyprus and the prospects for progress in Iraq.
She arrived in Athens April 25 at the beginning of a five-day trip to Europe that also includes stops in Turkey and Bulgaria. (See related article.)
The transcript of Rice’s interview with Greek State Broadcasting is available on the State Department Web site.
For more information on U.S. policy, see Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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