US Rules Out Direct Talks With Iran.

US Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns on Jan. 23 ruled out direct negotiations with Iran and said a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran was "not possible" until Iran stopped its uranium-enrichment programme. Burns made his comments while addressing academics and reporters at the Gulf Research Centre in Dubai.

The visit of the third highest-ranking official in the State Department comes amid a flurry of US diplomatic activities led by Secretary Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates to explain the rationale behind Washington's policies in the Middle East. Burns said: "The Middle East isn't a region to be dominated by Iran. The Gulf isn't a body of water to be controlled by Iran. That's why we've seen the United States station two carrier battle groups in the region". The US is clearly seeking a diplomatic solution, he said, "but Iran is miscalculating the scenario. The US has always had the stability of this strategic region in mind and Iran has been trying to alter it by attempting to dominate. The US will not let that happen. We don't want Iran to dominate the region. When challenged, we respond - economically, financially, politically, and not necessarily just through military means".

US policy towards Iran and Iraq is conditioned by the concerns of the countries in the Gulf and the Middle East, and not by US interests alone, he added. He said: "We want peace, stability and security in the region. For this we have to work together. Pakistan, India, France, Germany, China, Australia, South Korea and Russia are our friends". Burns singled out Syria, Belarus, Venezuela and traditional US Cold War foe Cuba as being aligned against the US with Iran. He said : "The Arab voice is very important in this issue", referring to Iran's uranium-enrichment programme.

Saudi Arabia has openly declared its opposition to another nuclear power in the region, but supports any country's right to a nuclear energy programme. The problem lies in the fact that the same process used to refine uranium for nuclear power can easily be used to refine the "super-rich" uranium needed for nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is supposed to play a regulatory role, but Iran has recently barred 38 IAEA inspectors from entering the country. Adding to the diplomatic non-proliferation problems is the fact that the US - one of the most vocal critics of Iran's nuclear policy - has one of the largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons and has made only nominal progress in the past decade in reducing the number of arms it possesses. Nevertheless the UN Security Council, including Russia, China and France, has voted in support of sanctions on Iran.

Burns put Iran's nuclear programme as the most worrying issue for the US, its allies in the region and the rest of the world. He said 192 countries in the UN urged Iran to give up its nuclear programme and accept a peaceful solution, but the defiant regime in Tehran refused all "generous" offers. Burns said: "The whole world is supporting the US stand towards Iran, except for Cuba, Venezuela, Belarus and Syria". He said the world was convinced that Iran was seeking nuclear weapons. In addition to its nuclear ambitions, Iran continued to be the central bank of terrorism in the Middle East.

Iran appears to be flexing its muscles to be the dominant country with President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad exporting his radical philosophy. Burns said life will be difficult for the Iranian regime if they ignore the demands of the international community, adding: "As I look around the world, I can see a strategic landscape that is in many ways beneficial to the United States and to the goal of peace and stability. As we look at the Middle East we are impressed by the enormity of the challenges before us. And I think it is fair to say that for the final two years of President Bush's term in office, the Middle East will be the focus of the administration".

Concerning Iraq, Burns said the US was trying to help the elected government overcome the terrible sectarian war, adding: "We have a job that is not complete. And we have a job that we can't walk away from and we will not walk away from just because it is difficult. When President Bush gave his speech on Jan. 10, he focused it on the Iraqi issue. We have a responsibility and we shall stay to exercise that responsibility. We will try to help the Iraqis to restore basic elements of stability and security of Baghdad, al-Anbar province and other major cities of the country. That is our primary job in Iraq. We are trying to quicken the pace of the economic reconstruction. We want Iraq to succeed. We hope that the neighbours of Iraq will be more responsible, particularly Iran and Syria, in being agents of unity as opposed to agents of division".

Burns said the tasks in Iraq were really enormous. "These are daunting responsibilities and yet the price of walking away would be even worse. The consequences of walking away would be far worse than the challenges of staying. So we choose to stay as long as the Iraqi government and the people would wish us to stay - and until we see what we can do to help return Iraq to a state of normalcy and security, perhaps far in the future, but we have to keep our sight on that".