Rice Considers Consequences for Iran Intransigence
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
By James Rosen
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EN ROUTE TO THE UNITED STATES - Warning of a "slow erosion of the
credibility of the international community," Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice challenged the other permanent members of the U.N.
Security Council on Tuesday to take action against Iran if it does not
reverse its nuclear program in the next few weeks.

"Without some movement forward, I think the international community
would be rightly asked: How long before there is going to be a
consequence for Iran continuing to ignore the demands of the
international community?" Rice told reporters aboard her plane en route
to Washington after attending the London Conference on Afghanistan.

Rice's comments came the day after she and her counterparts on the
Security Council ended a four-hour negotiating session - at 1 a.m.
local time - in unanimous agreement that they should vote in concert
to support the referral, or "reporting," of Iran's case to that body.
That is expected to come at Thursday's special session in Vienna of the
U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency .

In exchange for its agreement to support Iran's referral, a step long
sought by the United States and its European allies, Russia extracted a
concession that allows the Security Council to take no action until
after another IAEA meeting in early March.

"We were prepared to be sensitive to their sense of timing of when this
ought to be taken up in the Security Council," Rice said.

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