Rice on US efforts to force Iran to back down
Iran-USA, Politics, 4/21/2006

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said within the past two days that the US "can help mobilize the international community to convince the Iranians that they've got to take another course."

Rice said yesterday "More and more countries are talking about what kinds of sanctions or measures may have to be taken in order to get Iran to reverse course. The Iranians want to say that they need civil nuclear power. Everybody says, fine, you can have civil nuclear power but yet do it in a way that doesn't make people think that you're trying to build a nuclear weapon. That seems like a reasonable demand of the international community. And yet the Iranians just keep escalating. But they don't want to be as isolated as the international community has made them and when it is obvious to them that the world is united I think they will change course."

Asked how far the US, without international support, is willing to go alone to make sure that their nuclear capabilities don't come to fruition, Rice said "I -- the international community has got to do that, not just the United States. I was saying to the Russians at one point, Iran is in their neighborhood. They don't want a nuclear armed Iran in their neighborhood. Iran is the central bank on terrorism. Do we want an Iran with nuclear arms with a President that talks about wiping Israel off the map with a nuclear weapon? This isn't just a problem for the United States, it's a problem for the world. And so what we are doing is working with our allies and we have very good coordination with our allies."

Rice said "They can have civil nuclear power. But because of a track record of 18 years in which they were not clear and not transparent with the International Atomic Energy Agency, that civil nuclear power cannot include the ability to enrich and reprocess on Iranian territory, because when you learn to do that you've learned the key technology to making a nuclear weapon."

About US military action against Iran, she said "The President is going to keep his options on the table, but this is a time when I think we've got many diplomatic options at our disposal."

Rice was asked "you repeatedly said Russia is just as concerned as we are that Iran not get nuclear weapons. So why do you suppose, or what do you suppose is behind their opposition to strong sanctions?"

Rice said "The Russians clearly do not want Iran to a get nuclear weapon. After all, Iran is more in their neighborhood than ours and so, I believe them when they say that. We have a disagreement at this point about the potential efficacy of sanctions, but I have not heard the Russians rule out anything, should Iranian behavior continue in this direction. In fact, we have had good meetings with the Russians and I think that we will see more countries starting to consider what sanctions may be necessary against Iran if the Iranians continue in this behavior that is really escalating the situation."

Rice was asked "Is there a particular type of sanction that Russia opposes?"

She said "No, we have not had a discussion of that kind, but everybody jumps at the idea that we want them to have sanctions and that worries everyone. What I think you are really seeing is that there is a lack of understanding of how full the range of options could be.. We have used political sanctions against countries. There are financial sanctions against countries. There are many possibilities, but I am quite certain that when the Security Council meets at the end of the month or early next month, if the Iranians continue this behavior, then we're going to have to take some kind of action."

Rice said "if the Security Council acts in a coordinated fashion, really makes it clear to the Iranians that they either accede to the will of the international community or they'll be completely isolated, I think you'll see a change in Iranian behavior. And that's what we're spending all of our effort doing." She said the message to Iran is "either accede to the international community's demands or be completely isolated -- and I think that's what we will be able to do with Iran. If things in the Security Council move too slowly, there are also options with states that may wish to impose their own measures, political or financial measures on Iran, and so that's something to consider. But right now, we believe that the power of the Security Council to act is really the way to do it."

Rice said "We have not had verification that the Iranians have enriched uranium to the 3.5 percent that they said, but we have no reason to doubt that either. It's just that I don't think there's been a verification at this point.

Rice was asked "Under what circumstances would you see a military action in Iran?" Rice replied "I don't think you can even speculate about such. I think what we need to do at this point is to redouble, indeed triple, our efforts to convince the Iranians that they need to come back. Iran is also not North Korea. I've sometimes seen Iran compared to North Korea. North Korea is a state that is very isolated, indeed kind of revels in its isolation. In fact, one of the reasons that that regime is capable of controlling its people is that it keeps completely isolated from the international system.That's not Iran. Iran is a modern state with people who are accustomed to interaction with the international system. It's a great culture. And I want to be very clear that we don't have any problem or any quarrel with the Iranian people. This is the regime that is threatening to isolate itself. The Iranian people we want to reach out to. We'd like to see more exchanges with the Iranian people. We'd like to see more scholars and athletes and musicians coming out of Iran because the Iranian people deserve that."

Meantime, in an interview with Bob Arya, in Chicago, Rice was asked "I was talking to some of the high school kids in their current event classes and the like, they came up with a couple of interesting questions. First of all, why is it that a sovereign nation like Iran can't have nuclear weapons when the US can, the French can, the Israelis can? Why can we have it and our neighbors or other people can't?"

Rice said "Well, Iran cannot have nuclear weapons because in a volatile region like the Middle East a country like Iran with nuclear weapons could be a great danger to peace and security. And that, by the way, is not the opinion of the United States. That's the opinion of the entire world. And imagine a country with nuclear weapons that has a president, as Iran's President has done, who says that Israel should be wiped off the face of the map. You don't want somebody like that with nuclear weapons. You don't want nuclear weapons in the hands of a country that funds terrorism around the world. And so Iran is a country that cannot be trusted with a nuclear weapon. Iran can have civil nuclear power and nobody would deny them that, but they have to have it in a way through technologies that would not allow them to have a nuclear weapon."

Meantime, John Negroponte, the Director of the US National Intelligence, yesterday said putting Iran's technical capabilities into perspective, that Iran will have to enrich uranium for several more years before it has enough fissile material to put into a nuclear weapon. Although intelligence analysts continue to believe that Iran is determined to acquire a nuclear weapons capability, Negroponte said, they believe it might not achieve that goal until "perhaps into the next decade."

Previous Stories:
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  US senators call for direct talks with Iran   (4/19/2006)
  US - Iran talks after Iraqi government formation   (4/19/2006)
  On US threats against Iran   (4/18/2006)

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