Nuclear Talks Still an Option for Iran, Rice Says

Six world powers plan to continue offering economic and political incentives in hopes of persuading Iran to suspend uranium enrichment activities that could produce material for a nuclear weapon, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday (see GSN, March 6)

“The six … continue to follow a dual-track strategy,” Rice told journalists at NATO headquarters, in reference to sanctions against Iran agreed upon by the U.N. Security Council member nations and Germany that were enacted this week and their continued offer of nuclear discussions with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. 

Solana has spent more than 18 months trying to negotiate the suspension of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for an incentives package.  Tehran said Wednesday that it would refuse future nuclear talks outside the International Atomic Energy Agency (see GSN, March 5).

“We are continuing to talk about what the path would look like for Iran, should it choose the path of negotiation,” Rice said.

“There’s a lot on the table, the Iranians want to know more about it, or want to know in greater depth what those elements mean,” she said, referring to offers that Iran has repeatedly rejected (Agence France-Presse/Google News, March 6).

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