Saturday, March 12, 2005

Rice Signals Iran Risks U.N. Sanctions

First the carrot, then the stick. The administration needed to go along with Europe offering incentives to Iran knowing full well they will go nowhere. It's all part of the elaborate political dance which must occur prior to "the hammer".

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) is signaling that Iran (news - web sites) must move quickly to accept economic incentives to abandon its suspected nuclear arms development program or risk harsh U.N. sanctions.

Rice commented Friday as the United States softened its public posture and agreed to support an incentive program. Bush administration officials privately expressed skepticism that Iran would live up to the bargain.

It's an excercize in futility, Bush and Condi know this full well. The next little bit of choreography should appear relatively quickly; Look for this to go to the Security Council in weeks.

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