Rice informs Tehran deal not open-ended

Published Monday, June 5, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put Iran on notice yesterday that the incentives offered by the West to suspend its nuclear program are not open-ended, although she declined to say Tehran had a firm deadline to respond.

"I’m not one for timelines and specific schedules, but I think it’s fair to say that we really do have to have this settled over a matter of weeks, not months," Rice said.

Asked whether the United States and its allies expected an answer by mid-July when the world’s economic powers attend a summit in Russia, Rice said, "We’ll see where we are at that time."

"No one among these six powers is prepared to let this simply drag out with Iran continuing to make progress on its nuclear program," she told "Fox News Sunday." Rice said it was essential Iran suspend suspect nuclear activity because "you don’t want the negotiations to be used as a cover for continued progress along the nuclear front."

The six nations - the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, China and Russia - agreed Thursday to offer Iran new incentives if it would give up uranium enrichment. Rice would not give any details about the offer, which is to be hand-delivered to the Iranians in the next few days by the European Union’s foreign policy chief.

Rice said the proposal represented "a major opportunity" for Iran. "It’s sort of a major crossroads for Iran, and it’s perhaps not surprising that they will need a little bit of time to look at it. "But the fact is there are two paths, and we hope they’re going to choose the path that is a path away from confrontation and toward a solution," she said.

The nations said they would punish Iran through the U.N. Security Council if it refused to accept the terms. "We are absolutely satisfied with the commitments of our allies to a robust path in the Security Council should this not work," Rice said. But she did not directly answer questions about whether China and Russia have agreed to impose sanctions on the Iranians if they do not accept the incentives package.

The United States and other Western nations suspect Iran’s nuclear program is intended to produce weapons. Tehran insists it is only for generating electricity.

Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Saturday that a breakthrough was possible and welcomed unconditional talks with all parties, including the United States.

But Iran’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisted yesterday that his country would not give up the right to produce nuclear fuel. He also warned that energy supplies from the Persian Gulf region would be disrupted if Iran came under attack from the United States. Rice dismissed that talk. "I think that we shouldn’t place too much emphasis on a threat of this kind," Rice said.

Rice made clear that if the first major public negotiations in more than 25 years involving Washington and Tehran go ahead, "this is not an offer of a grand bargain somehow with Iran. This is not an offer to let bygones be bygones and to forget the record of terrorism or the human rights."