‘We are on a diplomatic course here’
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Athens early yesterday morning for a quick visit with Greek officials, including Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis. She was in the Greek capital until midday yesterday, at which point she flew on to Turkey for more talks as part of her ongoing swing through the Balkans and eastern Mediterranean. High on the agenda was the current tense situation in Iran over that country’s efforts to develop nuclear technology. Other issues included development of the Balkans, relations with Turkey and the Cyprus issue, as well as more general questions on combating international terrorism. Despite her lightning schedule, the American envoy agreed to speak briefly with Kathimerini about the issues she planned to highlight with her Greek hosts. You are arriving at a crucial moment in Greece when the dates set by the Security Council over Iran are expiring. We’ll have an extremely important voice in this next phase. I would hope that Iran would reconsider its position. It is very clear that the international community is prepared to see Iran develop nuclear power; that’s not the issue. The Russians have offered an arrangement, the Europeans have offered arrangements. The one thing that cannot be done is to allow Iran to have the technologies that could lead to a nuclear weapon, so enrichment and reprocessing on Iranian territory is not possible. There is a very good opportunity for Iran, if it chooses to take it. But if it does not, then I think in the Security Council we will have to look at what action to take because there will have to be credibility to the statement that was made a month ago. Will you get a decision? I do think it is possible to get a decision. The Iranians have thus far not demonstrated any willingness to accept the direction, the will of the international community. This is not American policy, this is the policy of the UN Security Council and so Iran needs to adhere to that. I can’t begin to predict precisely what the Security Council will choose to do but I’m quite certain it will choose to do something. Do you rule out any possibility of conflict? The president has made it clear that he cannot take any option off the table, but he’s also made very clear that we are on a diplomatic course here and that’s what we believe will work. It requires the international community to remain firm… It requires the Iranians to recognize that there is no other course but to accept the will of the international community. Iran is not like North Korea. Iran is accustomed to diplomatic relations with most countries, not with us, but with most of the world, to travel and to trade with the rest of the world. And what Iran is doing is risking isolation and an end to that kind of interchange. I don’t believe that the Iranian regime can sustain that kind of isolation. The other thing is that the Security Council is the most important forum. Let me just go to the bottom line: Iran is not Iraq. This is a very different set of circumstances. We were in a state of hostility with Iraq for 12 years after the end of the Gulf War. The Iraqis were practically every day shooting at American and British planes as they tried to patrol the no-fly zone. But in Iraq we did not maintain international unity. That is what we have to strive to do. So at the end of the day you don’t have in mind any coalition of the willing. Coalitions of the willing are entirely possible. But let me be very clear. It does not mean coalitions of the willing to be military… If in fact we cannot achieve reasonable steps in the Security Council to bring greater pressure on Iran, perhaps there are states that will wish to do that. But it is entirely possible that if we cannot work within the Security Council – and I still think we can – there are other options available. What are the conditions? Greece is a member of the Security Council… it is one of our close allies, it’s in NATO, a strategic partner, a member of the EU. But I think it’s too early to say that we will not achieve what we need to achieve within the Security Council. Because the Iranians continue to use language and to make speeches – [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad [the Iranian president] did yesterday – all of which continue to deepen Iran’s isolation. Do you intend to put a deadline of some kind to Iran regarding these programs? It’s a very good point, because unfortunately we can never know for certain what the state of the Iranian nuclear program really is. In history we have tended to predict on the short side, that the programs are not as developed as they were. That was the case with the Soviet bomb, with the Indian program, with the Chinese program and, the first time, with Iraq. I also think there is time to have the international community act and act in a very consistent fashion. But we’re going to have to move along on this issue; it’s not something that can go on for years. Turkey Iran is an issue very high on the agenda in Turkey as well, in a very different way. How do you plan to deal with this in Turkey? Well, in Turkey I will have, I think, the same conversation that we’ve been having around the world. But you do make an important distinction. Greece is a member of the Security Council and will very soon have to make decisions about Iran. But the Turks understand that they are also bound by the decisions of the Security Council. Again, let me underscore the policy line that we are currently on: One that supports civil nuclear power for Iran, but not with enrichment and reprocessing capacity on Iranian soil, that insists on the suspension of current Iranian activities and a return to negotiation. That is also the policy of the Security Council. And so I would expect that all responsible states – and Turkey is certainly a responsible state – will be a part of that. On relations between Turkey and the EU, do you think that Ankara can go on without opening ports and airports for the Republic of Cyprus? And two years after the referendums, do you think the Annan plan is still alive? Well, I certainly hope that we will return to the point at which we found ourselves, two years ago now, when the Annan plan appeared to have a good chance. I talked a lot with Secretary-General Annan. I think he believed and we believed that it was a fair plan. Everyone wasn’t going to get everything that they wanted, but that’s in the nature of a plan of that kind. And unfortunately it did not pass the referendum in the Greek-Cypriot area. I would like to explore, both here and in Turkey, whether there is a basis for perhaps a new try at moving toward a proper settlement for the Cyprus conflict. But I think we have to explore whether there really is a basis. I don’t think we want to go through another major international effort and it fails. I would hope too that the Greek Cypriots, who are after all members of the EU and therefore have an obligation to use that membership in the EU, would help through the accession of Turkey, not to block it. One of the concerns when Cyprus was admitted to the EU as a divided island was that there would be an effort to use that platform to make it difficult for Turkey to accede. Cyprus has always said that would not be its policy and so I think it has to act in precisely that way. And yes, it requires some give and take with Turkey, and with the Turkish Cypriots as well. But everybody has to act in good faith here and I will have those discussions about how we might move forward on questions having to do with Cyprus and the Aegean. Free expression How do you feel when they say not «Americans go home» but «Rice, you’re not wanted»? It’s not the first protest I’ve seen, and it’s not the last protest I’ll see, for I’m a university professor. This is a democracy and people have the right to say whatever they please. As long as they do it peacefully, I have no objection. And as long as they protest in a way that allows others to have a conversation with representatives of the US, I have no objection. I would just say that this is a right that has been denied to an awful lot of people around the world and that now, because of some of the actions that the US has taken, is actually now available to people around the world. So, criticizing the leaders of Iraq for not forming that government and dealing with the problems of the people – can you conceive of that in Iraq, after Saddam Hussein? When we speak for freedom and free speech, let’s speak not just for ourselves, who are fortunate enough to have had it for many years – and Greeks of course have had more recent experience of not having it than Americans. Let’s speak for people who are finally attaining it and for those who don’t yet have it.
