Rice warns Iran: One way for “common ground”
Washington, 30 July (IranVNC)—Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Iran yesterday that it should demonstrate its desire to find “common ground” with the P5+1 by accepting the major powers’ incentives proposal, warning Tehran that it faces more sanctions if it does not respond favorably.
By: IranVNC
Published: Wednesday, July 30, 2008
16:08GMT—12:08PM/EST
RICE – IRAN – NUCLEAR – FRATTINI
Washington, 30 July (IranVNC)—Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Iran yesterday that it should demonstrate its desire to find “common ground” with the P5+1 by accepting the major powers’ incentives proposal, warning Tehran that it faces more sanctions if it does not respond favorably.
“There’s one way for the Iranians to make clear that they have found common ground. It’s to come and say we accept the proposal,” Rice said yesterday at a joint press conference with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. Her comments came as the two-week deadline given by major powers to Iran for responding to the P5+1 incentives offer expires this Saturday.
In an interview with NBC television in Tehran on Monday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggested that the two sides negotiate “over the common ground” contained in the 5+1 proposal and Iran’s own proposal.
But in a warning to Iran that the deadline was firm, Rice said: “The Iranians should know that this is not going to be a matter that they can stall. The world is watching to see whether they answer clearly the question that Javier Solana asked them.”
European Union foreign policy chief, Solana, met with Iran’s nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, and representatives from the 5+1 – the U.S., UK, France, Russia, China and Germany – in Geneva on 19 July, where the major powers again called on Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment in exchange for a package of economic and technology incentives. Iran has thus far refused any suspension, in defiance of the international community.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said today in a sermon broadcast on state television, that Iran will “continue on its path” of its nuclear program. He accused the “arrogant world powers” - as the actual creators of nuclear weapons - of being the true threat to world peace and security. The world knows that, “the Iranian nation is after using nuclear energy to provide electricity but they say, ‘because this work gives you capability, we will not allow it,’” Khamenei was quoted as saying by a state radio.
During yesterday’s press conference, Italian Foreign Minister Frattini expressed his government’s complete agreement with the six major powers’ position, saying: “it is simply not possible to keep a negative role by continuing the enrichment of uranium. The prospect of Iran making a nuclear bomb is simply not acceptable. This is the Italian position, which is very firm.”
Rice alluded to the threat of a possible fourth set of United Nations Security Council sanctions to further pressure the Iranian government to suspend its uranium enrichment program. “We have been very clear that we have two tracks – if one track is not working, then we are going to have to go to the other,” Rice said.
State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said today that the major powers do not want to go down the sanctions route, but said they are “absolutely prepared … should the Iranian regime take the world down that pathway,” reports AFP.
Sources: State Department website, NBC news website, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Agence France-Presse
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