Reuters: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday she did not know if Iran would respond positively this weekend to an offer made by major powers to suspend sensitive nuclear work in exchange for incentives.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday she did not know if Iran would respond positively this weekend to an offer made by major powers to suspend sensitive nuclear work in exchange for incentives.
"I don't know," Rice told reporters when asked if she anticipated a positive response from Iran during talks in Geneva this Saturday that a senior U.S. envoy is also attending in a break with U.S. policy.
"The point we are making is that the United States is firmly behind this diplomacy and firmly behind and unified with our allies. Hopefully the Iranians will take that message," she added.
Rice decided this week to send the third-ranking official in the State Department, William Burns, to join a meeting with Iran's nuclear negotiator along with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and other envoys from China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany.
Iran is expected to respond to an offer of incentives made last month by major powers, which includes financial and diplomatic carrots as well as cooperation in developing a civilian nuclear program.
"We will see what the Iranians say," said Rice.
She said Burns' attendance — a sharp departure from the usual U.S. isolation policy on Iran — would make it clear to Iran that the international community was united.
"(We are) … offering the Iranians a way to really engage with the international community but also being insistent that they need to suspend verifiably their program in order to enter into negotiations," she said.
While Burns is going to Geneva's talks, the United States has said it will only begin full-blown negotiations with Iran if it gives up uranium enrichment, which the West believes is aimed at developing a nuclear weapon and Iran says is for peaceful power generation.
