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US Says More Pressure Needed to Stop Iran Nukes
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=15E6442:A6F02AD83191E16088D53C0A91AD45529574F7DCC14957C0 Undersecretary of
State Nicolas Burns said all options will remain open to get Iran to
cooperate with international community A senior U.S. diplomat says the
international community needs to bring more pressure on Iran to end,
what he describes as, its efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Jim
Teeple has details from our Jerusalem bureau.







Nicholas Burns speaks at Herzliya conference in Herzliya, near Tel
Aviv, 21 Jan 2007Speaking at an international conference on security
issues in the Israeli city of Herziliya, Undersecretary of State for
Political Affairs Nicolas Burns says recent sanctions passed by the
U.N. Security council on Iran are just the first step in what he says
will be a broad international effort to get Iran to stop developing
nuclear weapons.

"And so Iran is going to have to suffer the consequences of being an
international pariah because of the Security Council sanctions," he
said. "But my country does not believe we should stop there. We
believe that greater pressure should be brought upon the Iranians to
convince them to recalculate how they think about their nuclear
program and just how valuable it is to them."

Burns says the U.S. is encouraging Russia and China not sell weapons
to Iran. He says the United States is also encouraging the European
Union to suspend export credits to Iran and working with international
banking institutions to stop lending to Iranian state institutions,
which he says are used by the Iranian government as front companies to
fund terrorism.

The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on Iran last month for its
refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment and missile programs,
offering to help Iran develop a civilian nuclear power capability if
it does so. The United States and the European Union say Iran is
developing a nuclear-weapons program, something Iranian officials
deny.

The Security Council has set a February 21 deadline for Iran to comply
with its demands or face the possibility of further sanctions.

Burns says with their support for Hezbollah in last year's conflict
with Israel, and through their nuclear research program, Iranian
officials have come to believe they are in the ascendancy in the
Middle East. But he says that is now changing and Iran is on the
defensive.

"I think its defeat in the Security Council in December, and the
prospect of further sanctions and the actions that my government has
taken in Iraq over the past three weeks against them, the stationing
of our carriers in the Persian Gulf, and now to see that even Russia
and China are voting against them, Iran is no longer on the offensive,
it is on the defensive and we need to keep it on the defensive," added
Burns.

U.S. authorities have acted against Iran recently, stationing two
aircraft carrier battle groups in the Persian Gulf, and arresting
several Iranians in Iraq who U.S. officials say were assisting attacks
against U.S. troops.

Burns says the United States believes in diplomacy and is not seeking
a confrontation with Iran, but he says all options will remain open in
the effort to get Iran to cooperate with the international community.