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Q On Iran, the administration has been saying that the door is still open to negotiations, and yet their rhetoric is getting very heated, the Secretary of State saying that Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship; Ahmadinejad today saying that any country that imposes sanctions will regret it. So --
MR. GIBBS: I'm sorry, what --
Q Ahmadinejad was saying countries that impose sanctions will regret them.
MR. GIBBS: Well, look, Mr. Ahmadinejad has been making inflammatory statements for I think going on many years. I wouldn't simply cordon off today's outrageous statement. Look, I think what Secretary Clinton -- what Secretary Clinton said about the IRGC obviously is -- they're a powerful force in the country that has taken actions to support Iran's nuclear program, taken actions to repress the universal rights of its citizens, and to facilitate its state sponsorship of terror, which led the Treasury Department just last week to tighten sanctions on the IRGC.
So, look, our policy of engagement is not for the sake of simply engaging. This is not talk for the sake of talking. Engagement is a means toward an end. And if Iran is unwilling to constructively take part in that and change its behavior, then, as the President said in the State of the Union, and as the Russians and the French and the Americans said in a letter to the IAEA today, not changing their behavior will have consequences.
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Q And on Iran, you said there will be consequences. Do you rule out military consequences?
MR. GIBBS: I wouldn't rule out anything. Our focus has been on the process of engagement. The Iranians have at virtually every turn either ignored or disregarded that engagement, demonstrating to the world that its nuclear program is not of the means and type that they have tried to convince others that it's for; that as a result of that, not living up to their responsibilities, that consequences will follow.
And that's what the President, the P5-plus-1, have been involved in. And, again, the letter that's gone to the IAEA from the French, the Russians, and the Americans I think outline a united position in dealing with Iran.
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