Rice calls on Iran to make “right choice” in nuke dispute
Published: Thursday, May 22, 2008
13:01GMT—9:01AM/EST
RICE – MILIBAND – IRAN – NUKE
Washington, May 22 (IranVNC)—In a press conference yesterday on the political crisis in Lebanon, Syrian-Israeli peace talks and the West’s diplomatic dispute with Iran, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran must choose the right path in addressing international concerns about its nuclear enrichment activities.
Speaking alongside Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband in Washington, Rice said the international community must “give Iran a choice. If Iran cannot make the right choice, then it will face consequences.”
The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany are pursuing a “two-track” strategy of political and economic pressures coupled with incentives to persuade Iran to suspend its controversial uranium enrichment program.
The 5+1 group is expected to present a renewed incentives offer to Tehran soon.
Miliband yesterday declined to comment on the details of the offer, saying: “we're now in advanced discussions with the Iranian authorities about the transmission of that package. I prefer it to remain a package that's delivered first to the Iranians rather than to the international media.”
The United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany will continue their “two-track” policy, he added.
Both officials refused to discuss a counter-proposal that Iran has put forward in a bid to resolve its diplomatic and nuclear disputes. However, Miliband said: “We will all be looking very carefully, obviously, at the Iranian letter and talking to each other about its contents. But we're also very, very clear that our own package needs to be addressed very, very carefully by the Iranian regime and that's the basis on which we should go forward.”
Iran, this week expressed similar sentiments, saying its response to the Western incentives offer depends on Western handling of its counterproposal.
On the effect of international economic pressure on Iran, Miliband said Iran’s economy had deteriorated as a result of the “substantial costs that the Iranian regime is bringing on their own people as a result of the policy they're currently pursuing.”
Rice echoed Miliband’s assessment of U.S. and United Nations sanctions against the country, saying: “You have seen a drying up of investment in Iran's infrastructure. You have seen a drying up of investment in Iran's oil capability. You're seeing a drying up of export credits to Iran.”
The United States has imposed unilateral sanctions against four of Iran’s largest financial institutions, and individuals and companies it accuses of financing what it calls Iran’s support of terrorist operations in Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories and Afghanistan. These sanctions “augment” U.N. Security Council resolutions against Iran, Rice said.
Source: U.S. State Department transcript
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