WASHINGTON (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday she would leave the decision on whether to open a US interests section in Tehran to president-elect Barack Obama.
"At this late moment, I think it is probably better that this decision be left to the next administration," Rice told a press conference here.
Rice was asked if the United States would open a diplomatic interests section in Tehran, envisioned in Washington but never officially announced, a move that would end nearly three decades without diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The two sides, however, have held a series of meetings on Iraq's security situation, and in July the US administration sent a senior diplomat on an unprecedented mission to attend talks between Iran and six major powers on Tehran's nuclear standoff with the West.
Drawing a comparison with the interests section the US maintains in Havana despite the lack of formal diplomatic relations with Cuba, Rice insisted the Tehran post would serve primarily to develop direct contacts with the Iranian population and issue visas for Iranians wishing to visit the United States.
"The president took an in-principle decision, based on his belief and our belief that in the context of a policy that is firm -- and I want to emphasize "firm" -- ... this is something that the United States might want to pursue," she said.
But international events, including the war in Georgia in early August, required the administration's attention and prevented it from completing the project.
"We were actually doing the work that would be needed to do to see how it could be implemented and what it could do," Rice explained. "Because the one thing we wanted to be very clear was that it would have to have the capability actually to issue visas."
The United States never contacted Iran to offer its proposal, Rice added. The chief American diplomat expressed skepticism at reports indicating Iran now has more than 5,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges.
Iranian Atomic Energy Organization chief Gholam Reza Aghazadeh indicated Wednesday that Iran now has more than 5,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges in operation. Last week, a report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Iran had 3,820 centrifuges in operation and another 2,132 being installed or tested.
"It is clear that one does not get a clear picture from the Iranians on these issues, so we rely on the IAEA," the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rice said.
She also dismissed Tehran's announced launch of a second rocket into space, the Kavosghar 2, or Explorer 2.
"Look, the Iranians are launching things all the time. I would hope that they would be instead trying to work toward not being so isolated in the international system," she said.
Iran has long-standing ambitions to position itself as a major force in the region but "I don't think anybody is confused about the balance of power in the Gulf," Rice added, highlighting important arms sales agreements the US has signed in recent years with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
In the early stages of his election campaign, Obama said he favored unconditional direct talks with Tehran, but has since hardened his position. He told his first press conference since winning the US presidential election on November 4 that Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons was unacceptable.
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