Rice warns Iran on nukes
2008-07-21 09:47
Shannon - Iran has two weeks to respond seriously to an international offer to halt its sensitive nuclear work or face further "punitive measures," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned.
Flying to the Middle East on Monday, Rice sought to tighten the screws on Tehran after taking the unprecedented step of sending a top US diplomat to meet Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili at international talks in Geneva.
Until Saturday, the United States had refused to sit with Iran at such talks until it stopped enriching uranium, but changed course to show it was going the extra mile for a diplomatic solution.
The meeting sent a "very strong message to the Iranians that they can't go and stall ... and that they have to make a decision," Rice told reporters on her flight to Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
"It clarifies Iran's choices and we will see what Iran does in two weeks. But I think the diplomatic process now has a kind of new energy in it," Rice said.
Iran's Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana hailed their talks as "constructive" but Solana lamented that Tehran had not given a final response to proposed incentives for Tehran to abandon its nuclear programme.
Imminent action
Solana gave Iran two more weeks to respond.
The six world powers have offered to start pre-negotiations during which Tehran would add no more uranium-enriching centrifuges and in return face no further sanctions - the so-called "freeze-for-freeze" approach.
The diplomacy offered the possibility of both negotiations and the "possibility of punitive measures," Rice said.
"And we are in the strongest possible position to demonstrate that if Iran doesn't act, then it's time to go back to that track."
She was referring to the New York track, where the UN Security Council has so far imposed three rounds of sanctions on Iran.
The top US diplomat did not expect any "imminent action" as August is a slow summer month at the Security Council but expected work to begin soon after on drafting another round of "punitive measures".
The showdown has stirred fears of Israeli or even US military strikes against Iran, as US President George W Bush has insisted Washington would keep all options on the table. It has also sent oil prices spiralling upward.