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The Associated Press
Tuesday 23 January 2007
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Dubai, United Arab Emirates - A second U.S. aircraft carrier strike group now steaming toward the Middle East is
Washington's way of warning Iran to back down in its attempts to dominate the region, a top U.S. diplomat said here
Tuesday.
Nicholas Burns, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, ruled out direct negotiations with Iran and said a
rapprochement between Washington and Tehran was "not possible" until Iran halts uranium enrichment.
"The Middle East isn't a region to be dominated by Iran. The Gulf isn't a body of water to be controlled by Iran.
That's why we've seen the United States station two carrier battle groups in the region," Burns said in an address to
the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center, an influential think-tank.
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