RiceSays U.S. Won't Join Europe in Iran Nuclear Talks

Washington Post:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that the United States would rebuff European efforts to bring it into negotiations with Iran aimed at preventing the Islamic state from developing nuclear weapons.

Flying to Europe for her first trip abroad as secretary, she told reporters that the United States was confronting the theocratic government in Tehran in "a variety of ways" with "a variety of different partners" to end its nuclear weapons ambitions, support for Islamic extremism, interference in Iraq and human rights violations. ...

"It's not the absence of anybody's involvement that's keeping the Iranians from knowing what they need to do," Rice told reporters. "They need to live up their obligations. They need to agree to verification and to stop trying to hide activities under cover of civilian nuclear power." ...

European officials say that without U.S. participation they doubt they will be able to get a permanent pact to replace the temporary deal reached last November curtailing Iran's uranium enrichment program.

Rice told reporters traveling with her on the first leg of a week-long trip to Europe and the Middle East that Iranian behavior on other issues was "not acceptable" and "out of step" with both other nations and a region that is embarking on political change, as reflected in the recent Iraqi, Palestinian and Afghan elections.

"What we support is that the Iranian people should have a chance to determine their own future and right now, under this regime, they have no opportunity to determine their own future," Rice said. "They should be no different from the Palestinians, or the Iraqis, or the Afghans, or people around the world . . . who are determining their own future." ...

"It's time for the entire international community to assess what more they can do," she said. ...