A conversation with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

Charlie Rose Show, Date: 05/07/2007

Bush won't give up military option on Iran: Rice

Tue May 8, 2007

DUBAI (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush will keep a military option on the table as he seeks a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Iran over its nuclear plans, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

"The American president will not abandon the military option and I believe that we do not want him to do so," Rice said in an interview with Al Arabiya television, part of which was broadcast on Tuesday.

Iran is embroiled in a standoff with the West over its nuclear ambitions. The West suspects it is seeking to develop atomic weapons but Tehran says it wants only to generate electricity so that it can export more of its oil and gas.

Rice in remarks dubbed in Arabic said Bush remained "committed to the diplomatic option. If the world remained strong, there would be a chance for the success of the diplomatic option".

Two sets of United Nations sanctions have been imposed on Iran since December and major powers have warned a third, tougher resolution might be needed if Tehran did not halt uranium enrichment.

"I say to the Iranians ... there are two options -- isolation and dialogue," she said.

Analysts say the measures, including arms and financial sanctions, are hurting business and deterring foreign investment in the Islamic state, which despite its oil wealth is struggling with inflation and unemployment.

Iranian officials have repeatedly rejected Western demands to halt work to enrich uranium, which can be used to fuel nuclear power plants or make atom bombs if refined further.

Rice reiterated that Washington would change its policy against Tehran, adopted after anti-U.S. Iranian clerics toppled the U.S.-allied Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in an Islamic revolution in 1979.

"The international community has made its demands through the United Nations; Iran should stop nuclear enrichment, after that there would be a change in the U.S. policy that has been going on for 27 years and then I can talk to them about any issue."

Washington severed its ties with Tehran in 1980 after students seized the U.S. embassy there and held 52 hostages for 444 days.

If Rice bumps into Iran official, she'll be polite

Monday, April 30, 2007;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice bumps into the foreign minister of Iran, she will be polite but firm about U.S. resolve to convince Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, President George W. Bush said on Monday.

Iran Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Rice could encounter each other at a conference in Egypt this week on stabilizing Iraq. Their attendance at the same forum has raised speculation about bilateral talks.

"Should the foreign minister of Iran bump into Condi Rice, Condi won't be rude; she's not a rude person. I'm sure she'll be polite," Bush said at a news conference after meeting with European Union leaders.

"She'll also be firm in reminding the representative of the Iranian government that there's a better way forward for the Iranian people than isolation," Bush said.

The meeting at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh will bring together Iraq's neighbors and members of the Group of Eight nations and the European Union.

The United States has accused Iran of helping to destabilize Iraq by allowing arms and foreign fighters to cross its border. Tehran denies the charge.

The United States and other Western countries accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, but Tehran says its program is for generating electricity.

"I happen to believe a significant threat to world peace today and in the future is the Iranian threat if they were to end up with a nuclear weapon," Bush said. "Today is the wrong word -- in the future -- they don't have a weapon today."

He said if Iran wanted a dialogue, it should give up its nuclear enrichment activities.

"If in fact there is a conversation, it'll be one that says if the Iranian government wants to have a serious conversation with the United States and others, they ought to give up their enrichment program in a verifiable fashion and we will sit down at the table with them along with our European partners and Russia as well, that's what she'll tell them," Bush said.