US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to press her hardline case over Iran's nuclear ambitions with Russia yesterday after saying the US had no plans for an imminent attack on the Islamic republic.
On her first trip abroad as the top US diplomat, the Soviet specialist will meet her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Turkey as the Bush administration pressures Moscow to keep on hold a fuel-supply deal for an Iranian reactor.
"We, of course, have worked ... with the Russians. And their efforts to cooperate with the Iranians on civilian nuclear power have been much more attuned recently to [our] concerns about the proliferation risk," Rice said on Friday in Britain on the first leg of a 10-stop trip to Europe and the Middle East.
"While it does not eliminate the proliferation risk, it certainly does help to mitigate [it]," she added.
Washington fears any Russian fuel supply to a reactor Iran is building in its southern port of Bushehr would move Tehran closer to acquiring a bomb under the cover of a civilian program.
Oil-rich Iran denies it is developing such a weapon and says its nuclear programs are for peaceful power generation needed to meet the energy demands of its growing population.
Rice, who has sought to allay fears of a possible military strike, says Russia's decision against delivering the fuel is part of the international community's diplomatic strategy against Tehran.
Asked in London if the US was considering military action to end Iran's programs, Rice said, "The question is simply not on the agenda at this point in time -- we have diplomatic means to do this."
Her response was unlikely to reduce global tensions over a nation US President George W. Bush said was part of an "axis of evil" with pre-war Iraq and North Korea.
Europe -- with US acquiescence -- has offered economic incentives to Iran in a proposed deal to ensure Iran does not pursue the atomic bomb.
And if those talks fail -- as similar ones did last year -- the US wants Iran reported to the UN Security Council for possible international sanctions that would have to be approved by Russia.
Some hardline US officials see the Russian supply deal as crucial to avoiding an escalation of the crisis.
They warn that Israel might strike its longtime foe should any deliveries be made, noting the country hit Iraqi facilities when former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein reached a similar stage in nuclear development decades ago.
Rice's week-long trip also seeks to repair ties with nations like Russia that were frayed because of the US-led invasion of Iraq last year.
She was to fly from Germany, which opposed the war, to Poland yesterday to thank Warsaw for sending its troops to Iraq.
Rice was also to discuss with Lavrov yesterday the Kremlin's pace of democratic reform amid complaints by Washington.
The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement this week that the talks would prepare for a summit meeting between Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin to be held on Feb. 24 in the Slovak capital of Bratislava.
Rice warned Moscow on Tuesday that it would have to accelerate its democratic reforms if it hoped to truly deepen its relationship with the US. She said Washington had to balance cooperation with Moscow on several fronts with what she called the Kremlin's "uneven" moves toward democracy.
US-Russian ties have soured amid complaints over several anti-democratic actions by Putin, including his move against the oil giant Yukos, a crackdown on the press and alleged interference in the Ukraine election.
Rice said the Bush administration had not begun any systematic review of its relations with Russia but added, "we're constantly looking at the policies and trying to determine where we go from here."
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
TAIWAN ISSUE: US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on the first day of meetings that ‘it wouldn’t be a US-China summit without the Taiwan issue coming up’ There were no surprises on the first day of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, as the government reiterated that cross-strait stability is crucial to the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the world. As the two presidents met for a highly anticipated summit yesterday, Chinese state media reported that Xi warned Trump that missteps regarding Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict.” Trump arrived in China with accolades for his host, calling Xi a “great leader” and “friend,” and extending an invitation to visit the White House
RSS