Iran not on agenda - Rice

2005-02-04 19:20

Berlin - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, seeking to allay European fears of a pre-emptive US strike on Iran's nuclear sites, said on Friday an attack "is simply not on the agenda at this point".

Rice made her remarks after talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw at the start of a week-long tour of Europe and the Middle East.

The Europeans have expressed fears that hardening US rhetoric against Iran could herald a pre-emptive assault to knock out Iran's suspected nuclear weapons programme.

"The question is simply not on the agenda at this point," the chief US diplomat said at a news conference with Straw.

"We have many diplomatic tools still at our disposal and we intend to pursue them fully," Rice said.

Britain, Germany and France have been engaged in halting efforts to persuade the Islamic republic to renounce any nuclear ambitions, with some European officials complaining the United States has not been sufficiently involved.

A senior state department official, who asked not be named, said that Iran was one of the topics discussed by Blair and Rice during a 90-minute breakfast meeting that included 15 minutes alone.

Although Rice side-stepped a direct question on whether the United States supported regime change in Tehran, the official signalled a more aggressive US tone in support of Iranians fighting to change the hardline Islamic regime and bring democratic reform.

"The president and the secretary have made it more explicit that we support the aspirations of the Iranian people to control their own government," he said.

Straw sought to project a united front on the issue.

He said the efforts of the three European Union countries, to the extent that they have been successful, have "only worked because we have been backed by an international consensus.

"Absolutely fundamental to the international consensus has been the support we have received in the IAEA (Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency) board and in many other ways from the United States, he said.

"It's been a joint diplomatic effort, albeit three countries are directly involved in the negotiations."

The senior US official insisted, however, that the Europeans had not asked for direct intervention by Washington in the discussions.

Rice also insisted the world community was united in its drive to contain the nuclear threat from Iran. "It is the Iranians who are isolated on this issue, not the United States," she said.

Rice warned Iran against meddling in neighbouring states Afghanistan and Iraq, where the US has launched military operations.

"There's nothing wrong with relations between Iran and its neighbours, that would be only natural, but efforts to undermine democratic developments in these countries would be wrong," Rice said.

Rice has arrived in Germany on the second leg of her trip which will also take her to Poland, Turkey, Israel, the West Bank, Italy, France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

- AFP