Rice: Iran gave nuclear runaround

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran yesterday of not being serious at weekend talks about its disputed nuclear program despite the presence of a senior U.S. diplomat, and warned it may soon face new sanctions.

In her first public comments since Saturday's meeting in Switzerland, Rice said Iran had given the runaround to envoys from the United States and five other world powers. She said all six nations were serious about a two-week deadline Iran has to agree to freeze suspect activities and start negotiations or be hit with new penalties.

Rice was briefed on the talks by Undersecretary of State William Burns, who attended them in a shift from Washington's previous insistence that it would not meet with Iran unless enrichment of uranium had stopped.

In Abu Dhabi yesterday, Burns briefed Rice on the talks. They then discussed Iran and other issues in closed-door meetings with foreign ministers and senior officials from six Gulf Arab states, along with Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

Along with the United States and Israel, the mainly Sunni Muslim Gulf Arabs are increasingly wary of majority Shiite Iran's muscle-flexing in the region.

At Saturday's talks in Geneva, Switzerland, Iran had been expected to respond to a package of incentives offered in exchange for its halting enrichment of uranium, which can be used to fuel atomic weapons.

But instead of a coherent answer, Rice said, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, delivered a "meandering" monologue full of irrelevant "small talk about culture."

"We expected to hear an answer from the Iranians, but, as has been the case so many times with the Iranians, what came through was not serious," Rice said as she flew to the United Arab Emirates. "It's time for the Iranians to give a serious answer."