Source:
abc.Russia Ignores Rice's Call for Sanctions
Skeptical Russia Ignores Secretary of State Rice's Call for New Iran Sanctions
By MATTHEW LEE
The Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday the United States would continue along a two-track strategy to deal with Iran, pressing for new sanctions and demanding Tehran come clean about its nuclear program while offering talks to sweeten the deal. But Russia ignored her calls to punish Iran.
Despite strong support from NATO allies in the wake of a new U.S. intelligence report that concludes Iran actually stopped atomic weapons development in 2003, the top U.S. diplomat was unable to persuade Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the urgency of fresh sanctions.
Rice said her talks with Lavrov were "an extension of other conversations we have had," suggesting the two didn't see eye to eye.
"So it was a continuation of that discussion and a recommitment to our two-track approach," Rice said at a news conference, referring to sanctions and diplomacy.
Rice was explaining the U.S. reevaluation of the Iranian threat during annual meetings at NATO's Belgium headquarters. She also spent two days here galvanizing support for a U.S.-led drive for a third, tougher set of U.N. Security Council sanctions on the clerical regime. The sanctions are meant to force Iran to roll back elements of a nuclear program it claims is peaceful but that the United States and its allies have said could lead to a bomb.
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http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3968336
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