AFP
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed Washington’s continued support for efforts by Britain, France and Germany to wean Tehran off any nuclear arms ambitions with security and economic incentives.
“There are legs still to this diplomatic process that they’re involved in and we’re trying to support the EU-3,” Rice said in an interview with Fox News.
“But everybody has said — all of us united, including the EU-3 — that if the Iranians decide that they won’t take this way out, that the international community has other options like the (UN) Security Council.”
The United States has long sought to take the Iranians before the world body for possible sanctions but has lacked sufficient support. So it decided in March to back the European negotiating efforts.
But officials here wondered whether the election of Iranian hardliner Mahmood Ahmadinejad as president last week would toughen Tehran’s determination to pursue sensitive work on the nuclear fuel cycle.
Rice signaled no immediate change of tack by the Americans.
“We are in a process, and I think we lose nothing by allowing the diplomacy to play out here and to give the Iranians a chance,” she told Fox News. “But if the Iranians don’t take that chance, then we have a unified international community going forward.”
The Iranians deny seeking to develop nuclear weapons and say their nuclear program is strictly for civilian purposes.
