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US and Iran both dismiss security-guarantee idea
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US and Iran both dismiss security-guarantee idea
Offering Iran security guarantees to stop its nuclear program makes no sense, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said as Tehran also dismissed the idea, citing a lack of trust.
Rice said European powers have not sought US support for security guarantees to Iran. This is despite reports from some diplomats that Europe may want Washington to make assurances such as a pledge against trying to overthrow the Islamic republic?s government, as part of a package to persuade Tehran to abandon suspected nuclear-weapons development.
At the same time, Tehran said it could not trust such guarantees from the United States and insisted this would not persuade it to halt its efforts to enrich uranium, which it says are part of a civilian power program. Interviewed on NBC?s ?Meet the Press,? Rice said there was no point to offering security guarantees.
?The United States is not, first, being asked about security guarantees, and secondly it makes no sense in a context in which Iran is a central banker of terrorism and a force for instability in a region of great interest,?
She said reports of a split with Europe over Iran diplomacy were ?simply wrong.? ?We are united with our allies in what needs to be done,? Rice said. ?We can?t allow Iran to move steadily toward nuclear weapons?. After the United States failed this month to get a tough UN resolution against Iran for its nuclear programs, Europe agreed to develop a new package of incentives and threats.
Britain, Germany and France, backed by the United States during years of fruitless negotiations with Iran, are working on a plan that could offer a nuclear reactor and security guarantees to Tehran. But their gambit seems doomed, with both Iran and Washington unimpressed by the terms.
In Tehran, Iran?s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said it was of little consequence that the United States would not offer security guarantees. Tehran also says there are no incentives that could persuade it to halt its uranium enrichment.
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