Rice says US won't join Iran talks

LONDON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday the United States would rebuff European efforts to bring it into negotiations with Iran aimed at preventing the Islamic state from developing nuclear weapons.

Flying to Europe for her first trip abroad in her new post, Rice told reporters the United States was confronting the theocratic government in Tehran in "a variety of ways" with "a variety of different partners" to end its nuclear weapons ambitions, support for Islamic extremism, interference in Iraq, and human rights violations.

Her unusually strong words signaled that the Bush administration would take a more robust stand against Iran in its second term.

"It's not the absence of anybody's involvement that's keeping the Iranians from knowing what they need to do," Rice said. "They need to live up to their obligations. They need to agree to verification and to stop trying to hide activities under cover of civilian nuclear power."

She stopped short of calling for the ouster of Iran's ruling clerics, who assumed power after the 1979 revolution ended more than 2,500 years of dynastic rule. But Rice said Iran's treatment of its people is "something to be loathed." Citing President Bush's State of the Union address Wednesday, she said the Iranian people "deserve better."

In his speech, Bush said, "To the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you."

Yesterday, Iran's supreme leader condemned Bush's remarks and said he would fail like his four predecessors to topple Tehran's clerical leadership. "The Islamic Republic of Iran, because of defending the rights of the oppressed and confronting oppressors, is being attacked by the global tyrants," state media quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying.

America "is trying, in a real but nonmilitary confrontation, through every possible means, to deny the talented Iranian nation of progress and deprive it of existence."

Syria, which Bush criticized in his speech as a sponsor of terrorism, warned that the democracy America seeks for the Middle East cannot come through force.

"Freedoms cannot be exported by tanks and planes, death and destruction," Information Minister Mehdi Dakhlallah said, adding that "the characteristics of the region and the distinctiveness of its peoples and cultures must be understood."

Iran could emerge as one of the most contentious issues during Rice's premiere as the top US diplomat, the first African-American woman to hold the post. Her trip is intended on both sides of the Atlantic to help smooth relations that were damaged by disagreements over the invasion of Iraq and other Middle East issues. She also will prepare the way for a European trip by Bush later this month.

Three European nations -- Britain, France, and Germany -- have been negotiating with Iran since 2003 over a deal to ensure that its peaceful and legal nuclear energy program is not subverted to develop weapons of mass destruction. The United States argues that it seems this subversion is already underway.

The United States has been playing the menacing bad cop in the background as the Europeans played good cop in negotiating directly with Tehran. Now the Europeans are pressing Washington to take part in the talks, on the grounds that the essential issue is security in a region in which the United States is a major military power.

European officials say that without US participation, they doubt they can achieve a permanent pact to replace the temporary deal reached last November curtailing Iran's uranium enrichment program.

Rice told reporters traveling with her on the first leg of a weeklong trip to Europe and the Middle East that Iranian behavior on other issues is "not acceptable" and "out of step" with both the international community and a region that is embarking on political change, as reflected in the recent Iraqi, Palestinian, and Afghan elections.

"What we support is that the Iranian people should have a chance to determine their own future. And right now, under this regime, they have no opportunity to determine their own future. They should be no different from the Palestinians, or the Iraqis, or the Afghans, or people around the world . . . who are determining their own future," Rice said.

When pressed on whether Bush's statement meant a new policy on so-called regime change, Rice said, "Policy is that the United States in a variety of ways and with a variety of different partners is seeking to deal with the destabilizing effects of Iranian behavior -- Iranian behavior toward terrorism, Iranian behavior on nuclear weapons as well as nuclear power, Iranian behavior in trying to deal with Iraq in ways that are not transparent."

During its first term, the Bush administration did not have a formal policy on Iran because of deep fissures between the State Department and the Pentagon over whether to try to bring about a change of government through covert or overt actions.

US officials say that in light of what they call dramatic recent political progress in Iraq and nearby countries, the White House is emboldened to take a harder line on Iran.

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.