Joint Press Briefing with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Danish Foreign Minister Per Sting Moeller (Excerpts)

March 2, 2005

Weapon Program: 

  • Nuclear

Related Country: 

  • Iran

. . .

SECRETARY RICE: Good afternoon. I have just finished a very extensive and productive conversation with my good friend, the Danish Foreign Minister. Denmark is, of course, a friend of long standing and a very great partner in the times that we have encountered, a good partner in the fight in the war on terrorism, a good partner in trying to bring peace to the Middle East, a good partner in trying to bring democracy and the spread of liberty to the broader Middle East.

We talked about the transatlantic alliance and we agree that the relationship is in very good shape and now we no longer need to talk about the transatlantic alliance; we are talking about how to put the transatlantic alliance to use to seize the historic opportunities before us but also to deal with the many challenges that we face.

Our colleagues have thought of many new ideas that we might explore in the transatlantic relationship and we had a chance to talk about some practical steps that we might be able to take to enhance our capability to deal with post-conflict situations, to enhance the contact between our populations to make sure that generation after generation understands the importance of U.S.-Danish relations but also of the Euro-Atlantic alliance.

It has been a very good conversation. We had a chance to talk about the very good work that we did at the conference in London on supporting the Palestinian Authority. All in all, a very productive conversation. Thank you so much for being here.

FOREIGN MINISTER MOELLER: Thank you, Dr. Rice, and thank you very much for receiving us so early during your tenure as Secretary of State.

To us it is very important that the transatlantic situation is good, that we work together, we share the visions, we share the values, and together we can bring the world forward towards democracy and reforms and development. That is why we, both of us, look so positively to what is happening now in the Middle East. We see possibilities and progress in Iraq, in Lebanon. Egypt is also moving now. And it is very important to support these developments because that is to the benefit of the peoples of the area and this way also for the peace of the area, of the region and of the world.

We have discussed, of course, the transatlantic situation and now we think the possibilities that are more convergence than we perhaps had before, on Iran, on Iraq, where we work together toward stabilizing the new government towards democracy and elections during the year. It's very important.

So it has been very good to meet Dr. Rice, Secretary of State. Again, we consider Denmark and the United States will work together with the same visions and same values, and the European Union has been very grateful and thankful and positive and looked positively upon your visits to Europe. I think you have spent more time in Europe than you have in the United States. (Laughter.) And we have been very grateful for that and we have had good conversations there, as we have had here today.

Thank you very much.

. . .

QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you, Madame Secretary. Thank you, sir.

Madame Secretary, I presume you've seen the reports out of the International Atomic Energy Agency suggesting that Iran has begun construction of some underground tunnel system, presumably designed to shield from view or attack its nuclear weapons program, its suspected nuclear weapons program.

First, are you in a position to confirm that intelligence? And secondly, how does this disclosure affect, if at all, the U.S. approach to the Iranian problem?

SECRETARY RICE: I have seen the reports. I can't comment on the underlying intelligence. What I can say is that there is considerable concern about a number of Iranian activities that are starting -- those concerns are starting to emerge. The IAEA deserves and indeed has the right to investigate and investigate thoroughly with full Iranian cooperation these activities, which are indeed suspicious.

And I would certainly hope that the Iranians understand their obligations to be fully cooperative, open to the IAEA in what it is trying to do, because it is something of an indicator of whether or not the Iranians are indeed ready to be involved in the kinds of activities, the kind of negotiation that the EU-3 is trying to conduct, giving the Iranians an opportunity to show that they are not trying under cover of civilian nuclear power to build a nuclear weapon or to acquire processes that would allow them to build a nuclear weapon. So it is a serious matter.

Certainly what the United States is doing -- and the Foreign Minister and I had a chance to talk about it -- is to examine ways that we can support the European diplomacy. This is not a matter of what incentives one might or might not give to the Iranians. This is a question for the President, having heard his European colleagues, of what can we do to support a European-3 negotiation with the Iranians to give the best chance to those negotiations so that the Iranians can show whether they are prepared to make a choice, a strategic choice, to convince the world that they're not trying to build a nuclear weapon.

So it only adds to our concerns about what the Iranians are trying to do, but I think the concerns of the international community are clearly there in the way that the Russians have talked to the Iranians about the Bushehr nuclear reactor, I think the concerns are clearly there with the IAEA, and there would not be EU-3 negotiations were there not concerns what the Iranians are doing.

QUESTION: May I follow up? Thank you. So, from what I gather from your answer is, this disclosure doesn't necessary change the timetable you're working on or the approach you're taking; it just adds to your concerns?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, it just -- it's just one more factor in adding to, I think, suspicions about what the Iranians are doing. What is happening here -- and I think we've felt it very strongly in Europe and we talked about it during our discussions, is that you're having -- the world is coming to a united position about Iran that Iran must not be able to get a nuclear weapon, that there are legitimate concerns about nuclear activities in Iran that could lead to the capability to get a nuclear weapon, and that therefore there have to be safeguards, verification measures, constraints on what the Iranians do, so that the world can be made to believe that the Iranians are not under civilian nuclear power development building a nuclear weapon.

And that consensus is now very strong and I had reaffirmation of that consensus when I was recently in Europe, or in London. How we support that consensus going forward is the discussion that the United States is now having. There's no timetable for that. We are still in discussions with our European allies, the President's still in discussion with his foreign policy advisors. But that Iran must not have a nuclear weapon and that there are activities going on in Iran that cause the international community to be suspicious about what Iran is doing: I think that's incontrovertible.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, is it still U.S. policy to force the Iran question to the Security Council? Do you still want sanctions, no matter what the negotiations will end up with?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we believe that the Iranian situation can be resolved diplomatically. And there is a course, a path, before us diplomatically. We are trying to be supportive of the EU-3 negotiations because anyone who can get the Iranians to verifiably, unambiguously, live up to its international obligation not to develop a nuclear weapon, it should be done. And it should be done diplomatically.

We recognize and we have always said, the United States has said, the Security Council referral is really, in a sense, mandated by the IAEA Board of Governors if we cannot get satisfaction about Iranian activities. And so the Security Council remains an option, and once it's in the Security Council then there are any number of things that the Security Council could choose to do.

But we believe that the EU negotiations are leading in the right direction because what they are doing is that they are confronting Iran with a choice about whether it is prepared to give the international community the kind of confidence that it needs about Iranian activities. Thus far the Iranians have shown no indication that they are interested in taking that deal, but perhaps the Foreign Minister would like to add.

FOREIGN MINISTER MOELLER: Yes, I can add that of course we have the same aim that we do not have nuclear weapons in Iran, that Iran is respecting the human rights, and we are having discussions with Iran to that effect. It's an open-ended process. We have not set a time date, timeline for it, but even for an open-ended process there must be an end someday.

QUESTION: Thank you very much.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much.

FOREIGN MINISTER MOELLER: Thank you.

. . .