Rice says U.N. credibility at stake over Iran nuclear program

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Ricem said Thursday the credibility of the U.N. Security Council was as stake as it decides how to deal with Iran's likely rejection of a deadline to bring its nuclear program in line with international demands.\n"In order to be credible, the Security Council, of course, has to act," Rice told reporters at a NATO foreign ministers' meeting.\nThe U.N. has given Iran until Friday to halt its uranium enrichment activities.\nShe said it was "pretty clear" that Iran would not meet the requirements set by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, regarding the enrichment of uranium -- a process that can produce fuel for generators or fissile material for nuclear weapons.\n"The Security Council is the primary and most important institution for the maintenance of peace and stability and security and it cannot have its word and its will simply ignored," Rice said.\nThe United States, France and Britain say if Iran does not meet Friday's deadline, they will seek to make the demand compulsory, a process that could lead to sanctions. That is opposed by Russia and China, the other two veto-wielding Security Council members.\nIn apparent message to China and Russia, Rice asked, "Is the Security Council going to be credible in making clear to Iran that it cannot be cost-free to simply flaunt the will of the international community?"\nRice said she was hoping for support for her view at talks here with her counterparts from the NATO allies and other European Union nations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is due to join the NATO talks Friday.\nFrench Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said the world had to show "unity and firmness" toward Iran. He added that Iran should be offered cooperation with its civil nuclear energy program if it complies with international demands to ensure it cannot be used to develop weapons.\nRice did not directly address a suggestion from German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier that the United States could hold direct discussions with Iran on the nuclear standoff if Tehran agrees to Washington's proposal for talks on the violence in Iraq.\n"If there are talks with Iran anyway on the situation in Iraq, then nobody would understand if the current central issue in world politics would not come up," Steinmeier told reporters.\nThe United States, which has no diplomatic relations with Iran, said in March that it was ready to talk to Tehran about calming the unrest in Iraq. Iranian and U.S. officials have insisted the talks will deal only with Iraq, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this week questioned even the need for those discussions.\nThe United States has not favored taking up the nuclear issue directly with Tehran, preferring to work through the United Nations. European negotiations with Iran led by Germany, France and Britain have failed to persuade Iran to bring its nuclear program in line with international demands.\nDouste-Blazy said talks through the U.N. should take priority, but he added that "all contacts would be welcome if they lead to the resolution of this crisis ... it's only through dialogue that we can get out of this crisis."\nThe Iran question was not on the official agenda of the NATO foreign ministers' meeting which, focused on bids by Ukraine, Georgia, Albania, Croatia and Macedonia to join the alliance. De Hoop Scheffer said NATO leaders would "send a signal" on the countries' membership aspirations at a summit in November, but a final decision was unlikely before 2008.\nLithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis said there was broad support among the ministers for a "membership action plan" with Ukraine at the November summit in Riga, Latvia, if the country sticks to political and military reforms.\nFurther expansion of the Western alliance in the former Soviet bloc faces Russian opposition. The Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday complained the entry of Ukraine and Georgia would be "highly painful" for Moscow, could call international arms agreements into question and provoke a reorganization of Russia's armed forces.\nThursday's meeting also discussed proposals for NATO to develop closer ties with other democracies including Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea to coordinate political positions and peacekeeping operations.\nSeveral thousand Bulgarians joined an ultranationalist demonstration close to the NATO meeting against an agreement Rice is due to sign Friday with the Bulgarian government. It grants U.S. troops access to use military facilities in the country. The deal is part of a strategy of shifting troops to based in Europe farther east and will deploy up to 2,500 U.S. troops to Bulgaria.