10 July 2006
Rice, British Foreign Secretary Call for Iranian Response
Afghanistan, North Korea, the Middle East also figure in talks
Washington -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett urged Iran July 10 to respond to the proposal that has been made by France, Germany and the United Kingdom concerning that nation’s nuclear activities.
“The Iranians have before them a very beneficial proposal, a proposal that would be beneficial for their energy needs, but a proposal that has wider-ranging implications as well for trade and other matters,” Rice said after her meeting with Beckett at the State Department. “And it is really time to get an authoritative answer to that proposal.”
At the White House July 10, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley said the offer by the three countries, collectively known as the EU-3, allows Iran “broad political, economic and technological benefits in return for practical guarantees that Iran's nuclear program will be solely for peaceful purposes,” and that Iran is expected to respond “by the time the leaders meet later this week in Russia” for the Group of Eight (G8) summit. The United States hopes Iran will accept the EU-3 offer, which also has the backing of China and Russia, Hadley said. The G8 leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia are scheduled to meet in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 15-17. (See related article.)
“We hope that the Iranians choose the path before them for cooperation. But of course, we can always return to the other path, should we need to, and that path … was, of course, the path to the [U.N.] Security Council,” Rice said.
The foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council are scheduled to meet in Paris July 13 to evaluate Iran’s response, the secretary added. (See related article.)
Iran has stood in defiance of the international community since January, when it ended a 14-month moratorium on its uranium enrichment activities and abandoned talks with the EU-3.
Beckett, on her first trip to Washington as foreign secretary, said she wholeheartedly endorsed Rice’s comments on Iran, adding that if Iranian officials “have queries and concerns, we look forward to them being properly raised so that they can be dealt with so the international community can begin to have that reassurance about Iran's intentions that is very much an issue of concern.”
Rice said she also discussed with Beckett North Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East, but volunteered no details. “There is no broader and deeper agenda than the one between the United States and the UK because we have no more important strategic partner than the United Kingdom,” she said.
AFGHANISTAN
Asked about the recent announcement that the United Kingdom is sending an additional 900 troops to Afghanistan, Beckett rejected the suggestion that the new deployment indicated the coalition had underestimated the difficulty of restoring security to the Central Asian country. The bulk of the forces, she said, are engineers with expertise in providing services and improving infrastructure. As for finishing the mission in Afghanistan, “It will take time. But we are getting there.”
Rice said it would be a mistake to confuse recent security problems in southern Afghanistan with a strategic threat to the Afghan government. The Taliban “are losing hugely” as a result of having confronted coalition forces in the southern part of the country, she said. The new infusion of British forces shows “that the coalition is prepared to do what it takes to completely secure Afghanistan.”
NATO, which leads the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, plans to augment its troop strength from under 10,000 to about 15,000 this summer as it expands its presence into the southern part of the country. (See related article.)
While in Washington, Beckett also spoke about globalization and security at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.
On July 11, she traveled to Chicago to deliver a speech on sustainable development at the annual North America Congress of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.
A transcript of the press briefing is available on the State Department Web site.
For additional information on U.S. policy, see Rebuilding Afghanistan.
(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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