SECRETARY RICE: . . . And now we'll go off to London for a somewhat truncated version of the P-5+1. I think I mentioned to you the other day that there were some logistical problems. Unfortunately, Minister Lavrov and I were only going to overlap for a very short time and that's what the logistical issue was, and that the Chinese might have difficulty getting there at all. So I think what we'll do is we'll hear a report of Javier Solana and we undoubtedly will continue the discussion, probably sometime early next week. But I think it will be good to start the discussion as soon as I can get there.

Questions?

QUESTION: When you're actually able to finish the discussions next week, do you expect at that point to be able to essentially close the deal and say we're now going to the Security Council?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we've said all along that Resolution 1696 is clear in the direction that it points, that when the Iranians refused to suspend enrichment and reprocessing -- in other words, when a diplomatic course is not going to produce an outcome -- then the other path has to be pursued. And I'm going to wait to hear from Javier Solana. I don't want to preempt what he's going to say, but I think we're getting pretty close to that time.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, you've said repeatedly that you don't think that the other members of the Security Council would have voted for 1696 if they didn't believe in its logic and that's why you expect them now to follow that logic. How then do you square that vote for 1696 with the various public statements we've seen from at least three of the other members of the Security Council to the effect that they don't regard sanctions as a useful instrument?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I'd like to know what three you're talking about and we'll see how these come out. I know that it's long been the view of particularly Russia that sanctions may not have the intended effect. I think that's well known. But of course, Russia voted for 1696. And what I heard Minister Lavrov say was that he wanted to make sure that we had exhausted diplomatic options. I think that's the discussion we're going to have tonight and extending into next week.

QUESTION: Is the President open to continuing to pursue diplomatic discussions rather than moving to sanctions now?

SECRETARY RICE: The United States has always said that this can't go on endlessly. We already are more than a month past the deadline set by Resolution 1696. I think there is a danger of the international community not being taken seriously about what it says and what it demands. And we very much wanted the negotiations, the discussions between Javier Solana and the Iranians, to work and have been very supportive of giving those time to work. I think we want to hear from Javier Solana what he thinks of the impasse to which they've clearly come. And I think if you read his comments before the European parliament, he clearly thinks that it's come to an impasse.

But again, I'm not going to get ahead of the discussions I'm going to have with my colleagues tonight, but there is an issue of the credibility of the Security Council and the international system and you simply can't just keep talking with no outcome.

. . .

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, if your discussions continue into next week and you don't get sort of any firm action by the UN Security Council, are you also looking at other paths, other groups to take action with other than just the UN?

SECRETARY RICE: It doesn't do any good to get into a hypothetical here. I think that the entire UN Security Council has voted for a resolution, 1696, and that resolution makes very clear that if the Iranians do not suspend then we go back to the Security Council for, I think to quote almost directly, "measures under Article 41, Chapter 7."

I think the discussion tonight that will be very useful is to hear from Javier Solana about where he thinks this is. But again, I just read his statement to the European parliament and I think it's pretty clear that we've come to the end of a very -- I think very good effort. But I'm prepared to listen to him and to see whether or not I've read his words correctly.

QUESTION: You say Russia agreed to the resolution provided all diplomatic options were exhausted.

SECRETARY RICE: (Off-mike.)

QUESTION: Well, it seems to me that one of the questions that you probably will be discussing is have all diplomatic options been exhausted. And the U.S. position, I would assume, that it is that they have indeed been exhausted. Perhaps that might be the difference between you and Minister Lavrov.

SECRETARY RICE: As hard as you try, I'm not going to prejudge what my conversation is going to be with the Russians. But I will say this. Javier Solana has given this a lot of effort. He has been open to meetings anywhere, and anywhere anytime. He has several times been stood up by the Iranians who were unable to make various meetings.

And again, I just want to say the credibility of the international community when it speaks is extremely important. We face not only the situation in Iran. We face a situation in North Korea. We face a number of situations where we have Security Council resolutions. And when you pass Security Council resolutions, they are supposed to mean something.

And so everybody wants to give diplomacy every chance. The President has said he wants to give diplomacy every chance. But that assumes that the Iranians are also serious about taking advantage of the negotiating route. And so I'll see what the discussion looks like tonight and when we are able to continue.

. . .

QUESTION: . . . Secondly, on Iran, is this the turning point and do you finally believe this is a moment you kind of head in a different direction? And do you think it will have any impact on the Iranians given what Ahmadi-Nejad has been saying in recent days?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, on the last point, I do think that international action against Iran that tries still to convince Iran that negotiations are the best strategy here, nobody wants to have Article 41 measures just to have them. The hope would be that the Iranians recognize that their isolation from the international -- that increasing isolation from the international system is not good for Iran or for the people of Iran, and that they have a very good course because I've heard several times Ahmadi-Nejad say they're trying to deny us civil nuclear power. Well, it's simply not true. And it is very important that we speak clearly that civil nuclear power is available to Iran, it's available through the Russian reactor that is being built there. It's available through the concept of a joint venture that the Russians have put out. Maybe there are other ways. But this is about the fuel cycle and enrichment and reprocessing which can lead directly to the creation of a nuclear weapon. So that's one message that I think we've just got to continue to get out there because the Iranian people need to know that they are not being denied civil nuclear power by the international community.

As to whether this is a turning point, well, I'm sure there will be many in this long process. But clearly there was a very favorable, very generous package put on the table, not just by the Europeans as had been the case in the Paris agreement, but by the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany. The United States joining in that package. The United States agreeing to join in the talks should Iran suspend its enrichment and reprocessing. So I think that was a turning point. That was a potential turning point and we'll see whether or not we now have reached the end of that road. And I suspect that we're getting there pretty quickly because we can't continue to extend deadline after deadline after deadline or nobody will take the international system seriously.

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