Iran Risks UN Action on Nuke Plan

Condoleezza Rice, who learned to read music at 3 and plays piano in a chamber ensemble on weekends, told music students here that she loved Beethoven and was trying to learn Anton Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A Major. She promised them that when she “fully” learned it, she would come back to play for them. Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a meeting in Brussles Wednesday.

That was one American proposal accepted here without reservation. “Next time,” Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said, “you play for Paris!” Rice was playing for more than Paris as she swept across the continent and the Middle East this week on her first trip abroad as secretary of State. America’s top diplomat came to the capitals of Europe singing, if not a new tune than at least a softer one after a dissonant period between the United States and Europe. But if Europeans remain wary of U.S. foreign policy, they warmly embraced its chief advocate.

She stressed that the Bush administration has not changed its view that the U.N. Security Council should step in to get tougher on Iran. In Washington, President Bush said the Iranians need to know that the free world is working together to send a clear message: Don’t develop a nuclear weapon.

Three European powers — France, Germany and Britain — are now negotiating with Iran on its nuclear program. Asked whether the Europeans have delivered the nonproliferation message strongly enough, Rice said: “I believe that everyone is telling the Iranians that they’re going to have to live up to their international obligations, or next steps are in the offing. And I think everyone understands what next steps mean.”

Rice said Iran, which already faces tough U.S. economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation, could not tolerate any further U.N.-imposed cutoffs. Is the U.S. considering military action against a possibly nuclear Iran? Rice said the Iranian mullahs cannot indefinitely avoid accounting for their suspected nuclear-weapons programs.
advertisement

And she implied that Iran’s human-rights record should be “loathed” throughout the civilized world. But Rice left it to recent history - see: Iraq - to suggest what the implications of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons might be. But, far and away, the tenor of Rice’s current nation-hopping trip is one of rapprochement, of fence-mending. That is particularly so among those European nations that objected so strenuously to the Bush policies in the past.

Following his meeting with Rice, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder was described as “ebullient.” He and the U.S. secretary had “very much agreed” on cooperation regarding Iraq, the preceding two years of unpleasantness over that nation notwithstanding.

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier - a refreshing replacement for the culturally oppressive Dominique de Villepin of pre-Iraq war infamy - declared the discovery of “a new spirit that prevails between” the United States and France. And, for what it’s worth, he referred to his new spiritual cousin as “Condi.”

Rice’s most impressive foray into formerly hostile French terrain, however, occurred Tuesday. She spoke at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, directly addressing 500 French intellectuals and political elite - those policy-framing members of French society who most detest her boss. The UK, France and Germany have led diplomatic efforts to come to a negotiated solution over the Iranian nuclear programme, amid fears that Tehran is developing a military capability.

“The US president never takes his options off the table,” warned Ms Rice, though she added: “We believe this is the time for diplomacy.” Ms Rice said there was “no deadline” and “no timeline” and said a “diplomatic solution is in our grasp”. But she added: “It is obvious that, if Iran cannot be made to live up to its international obligations, the IAEA statutes suggest Iran would have to be referred to the UN Security Council.” For the time being, the US and the EU have managed to paper over differences, giving the diplomatic process more time, despite suspicions in Washington that Tehran is using its dialogue with European countries as a stalling mechanism.