Condoleeza Rice Issues Warning To Iran

Rice: NATO shouldn't be world's policeman

BRUSSELS (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that Iran cannot delay indefinitely accountability for a suspected nuclear weapons program, even as she said NATO should not play policeman to the world.

Nearing the end of a European tour that included visits to both old and new members of the expanding NATO, Rice talked in a speech and interview of her perceptions of the role the alliance should play in the global issues of the 21st century.
Her latest comments on the nuclear problem in Iran were anything but theoretical.

Rice warned the government of Tehran that the United States would not accept foot-dragging by the rulers of Iran as they consider various diplomatic overtures that European nations have made to resolve the nuclear question.

"The 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 in an interview with Fox News, released Wednesday.

"I don't know that anyone has said that as clearly as they should to the Iranians," she said in a strong reiteration U.S. policy that the issue of Iran's nuclear program should be taken before the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

"We have believed all along that Iran ought to be referred to the Security Council and then a variety of steps are available to the international community," she said in the interview taped in Paris and released after her arrival here.

"They need to hear that the discussions that they are in with the Europeans are not going to be a kind of waystation 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," she said.

Britain, France and Germany are in talks with the Iranian regime, but the United States kept its distance from that effort and the Europeans has been reluctant to take the matter to the United Nations before making further efforts at a deal.

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier used a news conference with Rice Tuesday night in Paris to repeat that France and the other European participants are committed to letting the diplomacy run its course.

He said he had asked Rice for American "support and confidence."

Rice told reporters that Iran is already on notice that it must not use a civilian nuclear power program to hide a weapons project.

Earlier Tuesday, Rice said in a speech that NATO can be a bulwark for freedom without playing world enforcer.

"How NATO's role will evolve, I think, is still an open question, but we need to be open to new roles that NATO might play," she said.

Alliance officials said in advance of her trip to Belgium that Rice's NATO visit would focus on preparations for a visit by President Bush on Feb. 22, when he will hold a summit with leaders of the other 25 allied nations.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer wants the meetings to seal a new unity in the trans-Atlantic alliance following bitter divisions over the Iraq war.

The talks are also expected to review NATO's peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo and its efforts to train Iraq's military. De Hoop Scheffer said last month's elections in Iraq — which were widely applauded in Europe — should boost allied efforts to expand its training mission.

Alliance defense ministers were set to discuss expanding both the Afghan and Iraq missions at a long-scheduled meeting Wednesday and Thursday.

NATO has been struggling to persuade governments to commit extra troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, the problem has been compounded by the refusal of France, Germany and other nations that opposed the U.S.-led war to send instructors.

NATO currently has about 100 troops in Iraq on the training mission.

Rice's first trip abroad as secretary of state concludes Thursday in Luxembourg. She has said that either she or her second-in-command will visit each of the NATO capitals early this year.

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Does everyone remember the build up to the Iraq War? It was all about compliance, and lack thereof from Iraq. Does this sound familiar?

Rice: Iran must halt nuclear program
Secretary of state says Iran could be referred to Security Council
Wednesday, February 9, 2005 Posted: 11:11 AM EST (1611 GMT)

Condoleezza Rice answers questions Wednesday after meeting with NATO and European officials.

BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that Iran must live up to its international obligations to halt its nuclear program or "the next steps are in the offing."

"And I think everybody understands what the 'next steps' mean," Rice told reporters after a meeting with NATO foreign ministers and European Union officials.

"It's obvious that if Iran cannot be brought to live up to its international obligations that, in fact, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) statutes would suggest that Iran has to be referred to the U.N. Security Council," she said.

Iran has refused to halt its nuclear program, saying it is only intended for peaceful energy production.

In recent months, negotiators from France, Britain and Germany have been trying to coax Iran to fully disclose the parameters of its nuclear program and abandon efforts to produce nuclear fuel in exchange for economic and political incentives.

"The message is there, the Iranians need to get that message, and we can certainly always remind them that there are other steps that the international community has at its disposal should they not be prepared to live up to these obligations," the secretary of state said.

She said that no timetable had been set.

"We continue to be in completely close consultation with the Europeans about how it is going, about whether progress is being made, about whether the Iranians seem to be moving toward living up to those obligations, and we'll just monitor and continue those discussions," she said.

In his state of the union address last week, President Bush singled out Iran as "the world's primary state sponsor of terror -- pursuing nuclear weapons," while depriving its people of freedom.

The administration made similar statements and threats in the run-up to its invasion of Iraq.

But Rice on Friday said that the question of using military force against the Tehran regime "is simply not on the agenda at this point in time."

'Time for diplomacy'
"We believe this is a time for diplomacy," the secretary said Wednesday, adding that human rights in Iran and Tehran's sponsoring of terror groups are also causes for concern.

"The message that we are giving to Iran: We do have diplomatic means at our disposal, we are doing this bilaterally as well as multilaterally, and I believe that a diplomatic solution is in our grasp, if we can have unity of purpose, unity of message with the Iranians and if the Iranians understand that the international community is quite serious about it living up to its obligations."

The IAEA has the authority to refer Iran to the Security Council, but the group's board of governors has refrained from doing so in seven meetings on the topic in the past two years.

Mark Gwozkecky, a spokesman for the IAEA, said the governors have reaffirmed their support for the inspection process at each meeting "as long as inspectors are making progress and not being obstructed, and as long as Iran appears to be cooperating."

The board next meets February 28, Gwozkecky said.

it only it could be limited to her ...I don't support that woman in any form (in fact, I question if she actually is a woman ...) but its not like she made that decision on her own. its the entire regime ... someone's agenda.

and in the long run, we are going to pay a dear price

Quote:

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Originally Posted by danceyogamom

it only it could be limited to her ...I don't support that woman in any form (in fact, I question if she actually is a woman ...) but its not like she made that decision on her own. its the entire regime ... someone's agenda.

and in the long run, we are going to pay a dear price

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"Someone's Agenda"... Begins with an "A", and ends with a "dolph Hitler"...