U.S. says no split with Europe on Iran

Rice said European powers have not sought U.S. support for security guarantees to Iran and said reports of a split with Europe over Iran diplomacy were "simply wrong."

This is despite reports from some diplomats that Europe may want Washington to make assurances such as a pledge against trying to overthrow the government of the Islamic republic, as part of a package to persuade Tehran to abandon suspected nuclear-weapons development.

At the same time, Tehran said it could not trust such guarantees from the United States and insisted this would not persuade it to halt its efforts to enrich uranium, which it says are part of a civilian power program.

Interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press," Rice said there was no point to offering security guarantees.

"The United States is not, first, being asked about security guarantees, and secondly it makes no sense in a context in which Iran is a central banker of terrorism and a force for instability in a region of great interest,"

"We are united with our allies in what needs to be done," Rice said. "We can't allow Iran to move steadily toward nuclear weapons."

After the United States failed this month to get a tough U.N. resolution against Iran for its nuclear programs, Europe agreed to develop a new package of incentives and threats.

Diplomats said on Saturday the European Union and the United States had split over the draft package to be discussed in London on Wednesday by senior officials from France, Britain and Germany (the EU3), the United States, Russia and China.

The offer is reported to include a nuclear reactor along with a guarantee of fuel for civilian nuclear activity and security guarantees, as well as warnings to Tehran of possible sanctions. But their gambit seems doomed, with both Iran and Washington unimpressed by the terms.

Rice said the goal was to show Iran a choice of either sanctions by the international community or an agreement that would allow it to produce civilian nuclear energy. "Iranians know that sanctions, that international action can, in fact, be quite damaging to them."

VIEW FROM TEHRAN

The idea of sanctions is strongly opposed by Russia, which favors diplomacy to solve the nuclear issue. "I cannot recall a single example when sanctions achieved the goal set by those who initiated them," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news briefing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In Tehran, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said it was of little consequence that the United States would not offer security guarantees.

"Firstly, they have not kept their promises and made good on obligations to different countries including Iran in the past so no one should think that such security guarantees are important," he told a news conference.

Tehran says there are no incentives that could persuade it to halt its uranium enrichment. That would be the only step that could convince the West that Iran is not building a bomb.

Even though the United States does not want to offer its own guarantee, Europe may still find a formula that allows for some security pledge to Iran, political analysts have said.

The United States says it prefers a diplomatic solution to the impasse with Iran but has refused to rule out a military strike to stop what it believes is Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

"The president (George W. Bush) is not going to take any option off the table but we believe this is something that can be resolved diplomatically," Rice said on NBC.

Washington is loathe to exempt EU firms from U.S. sanctions if they get involved with Iran's nuclear work and even more wary about any form of security pledge to a country that has threatened to "wipe Israel off the map."

Iran often boasts of its invincibility, saying its nuclear facilities are safe from attack while U.S. troops are bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Iranian nuclear issue currently lies with the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions if it rules that Tehran is not providing sufficient proof of peaceful intentions.

Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on CNN's "Late Edition" he believed Tehran was already seriously engaged in uranium enrichment, placing it "months rather than years" away from achieving the technology to build a nuclear bomb.

"We are close enough to the possible possession of a nuclear weapon by the most extreme fundamentalist government, which talks openly and publicly about the wiping out of the state of Israel. That's where we are," Olmert said.

(Additional reporting by Saul Hudson in Washington and Alireza Ronaghi in Tehran)

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