ABU DHABI (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to meet Arab allies in the United Arab Emirates on Monday after warning Iran of "punitive measures" if it does not respond seriously in two weeks to an international incentive to freeze sensitive nuclear work.
Rice sought to tighten the screws on Tehran after taking the unprecedented step of sending a top aide to meet Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili at international talks in Geneva on Saturday.
Rice, who arrived in Abu Dhabi at the start of an Asian tour, was due to be briefed on the talks by Undersecretary of State William Burns.
The United States had hitherto refused to sit with Iran on nuclear talks until it stopped enriching uranium.
The meeting sent a "very strong message to the Iranians that they can't go and stall... and that they have to make a decision," Rice told reporters on her way to the UAE capital.
"It clarifies Iran's choices and we will see what Iran does in two weeks. But I think the diplomatic process now has a kind of new energy in it."
Six world powers have offered to start pre-negotiations during which Tehran would add no more uranium-enriching centrifuges and in return face no further sanctions -- the so-called "freeze-for-freeze" approach.
"We expected to hear an answer from the Iranians, but as has been the case so many times with the Iranians what came through was not serious," Rice said, accusing Tehran of "small talk" and "meandering."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown echoed Rice's warning in an address to the Israeli parliament.
"Iran now has a clear choice to make: suspend its nuclear programme and accept our offer of negotiations or face growing isolation and the collective response of not just one nation but of all nations round the world," Brown said.
Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana called their talks "constructive," but Solana lamented that Tehran had not given a final response to proposed incentives for it to abandon its nuclear programme.
Jalili insisted on Monday that the issue of halting enrichment had not even been raised.
But Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Reza Sheikh Attar said that Tehran "will respond to every positive step of Washington with a similar response."
Rice said diplomacy offered the possibility of both negotiations and the "possibility of punitive measures."
"And we are in the strongest possible position to demonstrate that if Iran doesn't act, then it's time to go back to that track."
She was referring to the UN Security Council, which has so far imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran.
Rice said she did not expect any "imminent action" as August is a slow month at the council, but expected work to begin soon afterwards on drafting another round of "punitive measures."
The showdown has stirred fears of Israeli or even US military strikes against Iran, as US President George W. Bush has insisted Washington would keep all options on the table. It has also sent oil prices spiralling upward.
Rice said Washington would also look at other unilateral steps it can take to squeeze Iran's financial institutions.
She said Burns's presence in Geneva helped strengthen diplomacy involving the five permanent Security Council members -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain -- and Germany.
The United States has in the past met resistance for tougher sanctions from Russia and China, which have strong economic ties with Iran.
Rice was scheduled to hold talks with her Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan, in Abu Dhabi and meet foreign ministers and senior officials from other allied Arab countries.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was expected to attend the meeting of the "GCC+3" bringing together the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq.
Rice said the discussions would cover the Middle East peace process, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.
"It's this sort of GCC agenda that we always do. When things are moving quickly enough it's important to keep talking," she said.
Rice would not elaborate on prospects for setting up a US diplomatic presence in Iran for the first time since ties were severed in the wake of the Islamic revolution in 1979 and the seizure of US hostages.
But she said any effort to set up an "interests section" would focus on improving US contacts with the Iranian people.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
