US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice escalated US President George W. Bush administration’s anti-Iran rhetoric on Tuesday, accusing its government of pursuing nuclear weapons and calling any dialogue with its leaders pointless until they suspend the country’s enrichment of uranium.
While Rice’s message was familiar, the tone of her speech, before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), was unusually sharp, taking oblique aim at Senator Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders who have called for the US to engage Iran diplomatically.
“We would be willing to meet with them but not while they continue to inch toward nuclear weapons under the cover of talks,” she told the group, a pro-Israel lobby.
“The real question isn’t why won’t the Bush administration talk to Iran. The real question is why won’t Iran talk to us,” she said.
Rice stopped short of calling for consideration of military strikes against suspected Iranian nuclear targets, as some national security conservatives in US Vice President Dick Cheney’s office have advised.
But, in a pointed nod to her pro-Israel audience, Rice called on US allies in Europe to look for ways to further press the Iranian government.
“For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” she said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, on the other hand, put all options on the table.
“The Iranian threat must be stopped by all possible means. International economic and political sanctions on Iran, as crucial as they may be, are only an initial step, and must be dramatically increased,” he said on Tuesday evening, speaking to the same group.
“The international community has a duty and responsibility to clarify to Iran, through drastic measures, that the repercussions of their continued pursuit of nuclear weapons will be devastating,” he said.
“Israel will not tolerate the possibility of a nuclear Iran, and neither should any other country in the free world,” he said, in the strongest remarks the Israeli leader has made on the issue
Olmert was scheduled to meet with Bush at the White House yesterday. The Iranian issue was to figure prominently in Olmert’s talks with US officials, Israeli news media said.
Israel and the US claim that the Islamic republic is using its civilian nuclear program as a front to conceal development of atomic weapons technology, a claim vehemently denied by Tehran.
The issue of opening high-level diplomatic talks with Iran has come under the spotlight this political season, and that has played out at AIPAC’s 2008 policy conference in Washington.
On Monday, Senator John McCain allied himself firmly with the Bush administration and charged that Obama’s calls for diplomacy with Iran were misguided and insufficient.
And on Tuesday, Howard Friedman, AIPAC’s president, used his introduction of Rice to implore her “to use your remaining time in office to ensure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.”
Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton were scheduled to address AIPAC yesterday.
Rice’s speech was also notable for what it did not contain.
She did not say that the Israeli-Palestinian peace deal that the Bush administration has been pursuing could be achieved by the end of the year.
“We still believe that we have a chance to reach an agreement on the basic contours of a peaceful Palestinian state,” Rice said. “But if we can pursue this goal by the end of the year, it will be an historic breakthrough.”
The difference seems small, but in the past Bush and Rice have both spoken of sealing a deal by the end of the year, rather than simply pursuing one.
Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the Israeli parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday that it was important to keep the threat of a military option on the table for stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS