Visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said here on
Tuesday night that the international community was "running out of
time" in dealing with Iran's nuclear program.
"I hope that there is still room to resolve this, but the
international community is running out of time," she said.
Rice made her remarks at a joint press conference with Egyptian
Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit after a group meeting with
foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan plus the six nations of the
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -- Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United
Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.
Rice said that Iran should have the right of access to civil
nuclear program but should not be allowed to have nuclear
weapons.
She also dismissed as "old idea" an Iranian proposal that France
could invest in Iran's nuclear industry and supervise Iran's
nuclear program.
There was once a Russian proposal to set up a joint venture for
uranium enrichment, which would disable Iran to enrich uranium on
its own soil but refused by Iran in the end, said Rice.
She said the right way for Iran to propose anything was to
suspend enrichment and reprocessing, and to come to the table with
their ideas.
"But I fear that this may instead, therefore, be a stalling
technique because Iran won't get to the basic issue, which is that
Iran has to suspend its enrichment and reprocessing in order to
begin negotiations," said Rice.
Rice arrived here earlier in the day on a two-day visit to Egypt
as part of a regional tour, which has already taken her to Saudi
Arabia.
(Xinhua News Agency October 4, 2006)
