Iran Diplomacy Will Not Be Sidetracked, Rice Says

International diplomacy to address the Iranian nuclear crisis will not be disabled by the need to respond to this week’s reported nuclear test in North Korea, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 10).

“The United States is quite capable of taking care of several problems simultaneously,” she said, expressing confidence that “we’re going to have a Security Council resolution under Chapter 7, Article 41” of the U.N. charter.  That section gives the council the authority to impose sanctions against nations that pose a “threat to international peace and security.”

Rice said that discussions among the permanent members of the Security Council and Germany would proceed, but could be somewhat slowed as nations confer on North Korea.

“The urgency on North Korea is extraordinary,” she said.  “There’s no doubt that I’ve rarely, maybe never seen that kind of response from the international community.”

Still, talks about Iran were scheduled to be held by videoconference today, State Department Sean McCormack said yesterday (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Oct. 11).

In Tehran, Iranian leaders did not join the chorus of international condemnation of the North Korean test.

“The root cause of this should be sought in the policy, behavior and method adopted by the rulers of the United States,” said government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/WHDH TV, Oct. 11).

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