TEHRAN — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday dismissed Iran's response to a proposed solution on Tehran's nuclear program in Geneva over the weekend as "small talk" meant to buy time. She warned that new sanctions would be forthcoming if Iran did not comply with international demands to halt or slow its production of enriched uranium.
Rice, speaking to reporters in Ireland, said that U.S., European and United Nations Security Council sanctions on Iran's energy and banking sectors would be tightened if Iran did not agree to stop expanding its production of enriched uranium, which can be used to produce electricity or, if highly enriched, fissile material for a bomb.
The Bush administration broke with its long-standing policy of refusing to engage with Iran until it halts enrichment by dispatching Undersecretary of State William J. Burns to the Geneva talks.
At the meeting, Iran did not give a yes-or-no answer to the proposed "freeze-for-freeze" option in which world powers would stop pressing for new sanctions during a six-week period of pre-negotiations if Tehran agreed to stop adding new uranium-enriching centrifuges during the same period.
Flustered American, European, Russian and Chinese diplomats gave Iran a two-week deadline to respond positively to the offer or face economic sanctions as early as late August.
"We are in the strongest possible position to demonstrate that if Iran does not act, then it is time to go back to that track," Rice was quoted as saying about sanctions. "The main thing is we will have to start considering what we do in New York," the headquarters of the United Nations and the Security Council.
Rice's comments were the harshest yet about the meeting Saturday and could push energy prices higher on worries of increased tensions in the oil-rich Persian Gulf region. U.S., Israeli and Iranian officials have repeatedly painted dire scenarios if the crisis over Iran's nuclear program escalates to a military confrontation. Rice was on her way to the gulf to meet with Burns and leaders of pro-U.S. Arab nations to discuss Iran.
Nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, who represented Iran at Saturday's talks, gave a more upbeat assessment of the meeting as he arrived in Tehran on Monday. He said no one pressed Iran on suspension and downplayed the two-week deadline.
