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Rice says diplomacy can solve Iranian crisis PARIS (AFP) Jan 28, 2005 New US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said diplomacy can resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis but verification is the key issue. In an interview with the French weekly Le Figaro magazine published on Saturday, Rice said it was important that the world united to make Iran understand that it cannot pursue its nuclear ambitions while being an active member of the international community. Rice said she thought this could be achieved by diplomacy but that the most important point was verification so the Iranians could not get away with running a secret nuclear weapons program. She added that the Iranians must realise they have to keep their promises and that the international community is ready to take them before the UN Security Council. Asked if the US should use military force in Iran she responded that diplomacy could resolve the issue. For the past year the development of Iran's nuclear programme has concerned the international community, led by the United States and Israel, which suspect Tehran wants to develop an atomic bomb under the guise of a nuclear electricity programme. Representing the European Union, Germany, France and the Britain have been negotiating with Tehran to reach a long-term agreement in which Iran renounces any intention to build a nuclear weapon. However, US President George W.Bush has said he doesn't rule out military action against Iran if diplomacy fails. Iran has suspended uranium enrichment as a confidence-building measure but the EU now wants the Islamic republic to definitively abandon enrichment as well as any activities for making plutonium. All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.
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