U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

U.S. Department of State

Meetings in London

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
En Route to London, England
May 1, 2008

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QUESTION: Secretary Rice, (inaudible) international support and particularly Arab support, are you dismayed that you have not seen more political support provided by Arab states for this process? For example, I think it's only the Qataris that have made a very significant gesture in inviting Foreign Minister Livni. And, in particular, are you dismayed by what I'm told is their lack of coming through on the money that was pledged in Paris?

And on Iran, at the AJC speech, you also talked about the need for an intensification of diplomacy. And yet today, it sounds as if you think a sweetened offer of the 2006 incentives is really unlikely to lead anywhere.

SECRETARY RICE: Diplomacy has many forms, Arshad, and it's not always a matter of sweeter -- efforts to sweeten packages. I'm all for it. If there are things that could be done to improve the chances that the Iranians will do what they should have done and ought to do, fine, let's look at it. But what I'm saying is, nothing has been able, so far, to change the fundamental problem, which is not the United States and the P5. It's not the United States, Germany, France, Britain and Russia and China. It's not the UN. It's not Iran's neighbors. It's Iran. That's the problem. It's Iran that has refused to live up to the obligations that the UN Security Council has placed on it.

Now, I also believe that we've got to intensify our efforts on the UN Security Council resolutions themselves. I believe there's plenty in the Security Council resolutions that, if fully implemented, fully executed, fully used, will increase the pressure on Iran. I believe that there is still much to be done in terms of the collateral effects of a Security Council resolution on private activities where, clearly, people have concerns about the reputational and financial risk associated with dealing with Iran. So I think those are all parts of a diplomatic effort as well.

But it is indeed a two-track strategy. And my only point in saying that I didn't expect a major outcome from this meeting is that I'm perfectly happy to review the package and perfectly happy to see whether or not the package continues to make sense. But I also think that we have to review whether or not we are fully making use of the Security Council resolution sanctions that we've already passed.

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