WASHINGTON — U.S. and Iranian envoys Saturday had their highest-level diplomatic contact in 29 years, but the seven-nation gathering in Geneva on Tehran's nuclear program was quickly brought to a halt by Iran's refusal to say whether it would suspend uranium enrichment.
U.S. Undersecretary of State William J. Burns joined European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and other diplomats in an attempt to coax Tehran, represented by Saeed Jalili, to agree to a deal aimed at negotiating an end to Iran's nuclear program.
Instead, the diplomats were left wondering whether the Islamic Republic intended to join negotiations or whether it was simply playing for time as the Bush administration winds to an end.
Solana, clearly frustrated, said at a news conference in Geneva: "We have not got a clear answer. . . . We didn't get an answer 'yes' or 'no.' "
As a result, Tehran was given another deadline of two weeks from now to provide a final answer to the group, which comprises the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.
A senior U.S. official in Washington said the United States would press to levy additional economic and political sanctions on Tehran if it continued to delay.
"We'll have to see," said the official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. "If that is the case, more things will be added to the disincentive side of the ledger in short order."
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, also in Washington, gave a warning to Iran: "We hope the Iranian people understand that their leaders need to make a choice between cooperation, which would bring benefits to all, and confrontation, which can only lead to further isolation."
The inconclusive meeting was a setback for the Bush administration, which set aside its long-declared policy of avoiding contact with Iran until it agreed to suspend uranium enrichment. U.S. officials allege that Tehran seeks a nuclear bomb and fear that the enrichment effort will eventually give it the know-how to build one. The Iranians contend that the enrichment is for peaceful purposes.
The meeting was the most important diplomatic encounter since the 1979 Islamic Revolution between the United States and Iran, which President Bush six years ago labeled a member of an "axis of evil."
