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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HPilot who wrote (129530)	7/21/2008 6:07:08 PM
From: one_less	Respond to of 173976

Rice tells Tehran: It's time to stop the stalling 5:00AM Tuesday July 22, 2008 Condoleezza Rice. Photo / AP Time to get serious says Rice to Iran SHANNON - United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran of not being serious at weekend talks about its disputed nuclear programme despite the presence of a senior US diplomat, and warned it may soon face new sanctions. In her first public comments since Sunday's meeting in Switzerland, Rice said Iran had given the runaround to envoys from the US, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia. She said all six nations were serious about a two-week deadline Iran now has to agree to freeze suspect activities and start negotiations or be hit with new penalties. At the meeting, Iran had been expected to respond to a package of incentives offered in exchange for halting enrichment of uranium, which can be used to fuel atomic weapons. The Bush Administration broke with long-standing policy to send a top diplomat to support the offer. However, Rice said that instead of a coherent answer, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, delivered a "meandering" monologue full of irrelevant "small talk about culture" that appeared to annoy many of the others present at the table in Geneva. "We expected to hear an answer from the Iranians but, as has been the case so many times with the Iranians, what came through was not serious," Rice said. "It's time for the Iranians to give a serious answer." "They can't go and stall and make small talk about culture, they have to make a decision," she said. "People are tired of the Iranians and their stalling tactics." Rice's remarks about the Iranian presentation were much harsher than those of the host of the meeting, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who lamented only that Iran had not provided "all the answers to the questions". Iranian state radio reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad called the talks a "step ahead" and said the country's formal assessment would be issued soon. On Sunday, one member of the Iranian delegation said there was "no chance" Iran would suspend uranium enrichment, again denying assertions that Iran's nuclear programme was for anything other than power production. Jalili avoided the suspension issue entirely. Unless Iran responds positively in the next two weeks, it can expect more sanctions to be imposed by the United States and the European Union as early as late next month or September and may then be hit with a fourth sanctions resolution at the UN Security Council, Rice said. Rice was briefed on the meeting by the State Department's No 3 diplomat, Under Secretary of State William Burns, who attended the session in a shift from Washington's previous insistence that it would not meet the Iranians unless the enrichment had stopped. Rice was dismissive when asked if Burns or another US diplomat would be present to hear Iran's response in two weeks. "I think we've done enough to demonstrate that the US is serious and to assure our partners that we're serious," she said. - AP