U.S. backs off Iran nuclear vote

Globe & Mail:

Apparently lacking the votes to win, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice indicated Wednesday President George W. Bush's administration is prepared to delay again a showdown with Iran over its nuclear weapons program.

Describing efforts to constrain Iran from producing nuclear weapons, Ms. Rice said: “The world is not perfect in international politics. You cannot always get a 100-per-cent solution.”

Ms. Rice last week appealed openly to China, Russia, India and other countries to support threatening Iran with sanctions for refusing to halt its nuclear program.

“Iran needs to get a message from the international community that is a unified message,” Ms. Rice said Friday at a news conference.

But Russia quickly registered its opposition to trying to impose sanctions now on Iran in the UN Security Council and the White House acknowledged Wednesday that Bush was unable to obtain a commitment from Chinese President Hu Jintao.

The Bush administration had been expected to turn to the UN Security Council to put pressure on Iran to resume negotiations with the European Union after the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency meets next Monday.

But in an interview Wednesday with the Fox News Editorial Board, Ms. Rice took a step backward.

“I am not so concerned about exactly when it happens,” Ms. Rice said, “because I don't think this matter is so urgent that it has to come on Sept. 19.” READ MORE

She said the goal now is mostly to send a “political message” to Iran that it that it just cannot break out of a commitment not to engage in nuclear weapons preparations “and have everybody say, well, okay.”

The problem, she said, is there is a “lot of consensus” on the goal of having negotiations with the European Union resume. But she said there is “a lot of difference about tactics.”

The European Union has taken the lead in trying to persuade Iran to halt development of nuclear weapons in exchange for economic concessions.

But Ms. Rice said: “The question is, how much support can you bring that is non-European support.”

“That's really more the issue,” she said.