By David Gollust
State Department
18 July 2008
Secretary of State Rice Hopes For Iranian Change of Course on Nuclear Program
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she hopes Saturday's critical meeting with Iran's nuclear negotiator in Geneva
will mark a change of course for Tehran in its nuclear dispute with the international community. Rice is sending a
senior envoy to take part in the talks.
The dispatch of Undersecretary of State William Burns to the Geneva meeting is a policy shift for the Bush
administration, which had shunned direct contacts with Tehran on the nuclear issue in the absence of an Iranian
commitment to stop uranium enrichment.
At a State Department news conference with Kosovo political leaders, Rice said she hopes the U.S. gesture will encourage
Iran to accept international incentives and halt its pursuit of technology that could lead to a nuclear weapon:
"We have been very clear that any country can change course," Rice said. "The United States doesn't have any permanent
enemies, and we hope that the signal that we're sending that we fully support the track that Iran could take for a
better relationship with the international community is one that the United States stands fully behind. We will see what
happens on Saturday but that is the message that Bill Burns will be delivering."
Burns, the third-ranking State department official, will join European Union chief diplomat Javier Solana and diplomats
from the other permanent U.N. Security Council member countries and Germany, the P-Five-Plus-One, in the meeting with
Iranian envoy Saeed Jalili.
Iran is expected to give its reply to an enhanced package of incentives offered by the P-Five-Plus-One in June to try to
persuade Tehran to stop its enrichment drive and return to negotiations over its nuclear program.
A suspension of enrichment would mean a suspension of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran. Solana has also
proposed a six-week period of so-called "pre-negotiations" in which there would be no new sanctions added if Iran
stopped adding to its enrichment capacity.
In her comments here, Rice said the decision to have Burns join the Geneva meeting is a "strong signal" to the world
that the Bush administration is serious about nuclear diplomacy with Iran, but that it has not softened its fundamental
demand that Tehran must stop enrichment to end its political isolation:
"I would remind you that I signed the letter that sent the proposal forward to the Iranian regime," she noted. "And this
is, in a sense, the bookend -- Bill Burns will go to receive the Iranian response. But it should be very clear to
everyone: the United States has a condition for the beginning of negotiations with Iran. And that condition remains the
verifiable suspension of Iran's enrichment and processing activities."
U.S. officials have declined to speculate what Iran's reply may be. But they say the range of comments by Tehran
officials in recent weeks suggests, at least, an internal debate about whether to continue uranium enrichment - which
the Tehran government has said is part of a peaceful nuclear program.
ENDS