Rice says she’d meet with Iran

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that the U.S. would hold direct talks with Iran if it suspended its nuclear program. Iran’s president, however, pledged to move ahead with enrichment activity that Washington contends masks weapons development.

“I am prepared to meet my counterpart or an Iranian representative at any time if Iran will suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities. That should be a clear signal,” Rice said in Washington.

Earlier, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad compared his nation’s nuclear program to a train without a reverse gear or brakes. “We dismantled the rear gear and brakes of the train and threw them away some time ago,” he was quoted on the radio as telling Muslim clerics.

Rice, in response, said that the Iranians “don’t need a reverse gear. They need to stop and then we can come to the table and we can talk about how to move forward.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday that Iran had ignored a United Nations Security Council mandate to freeze its uranium enrichment program and had expanded the program by setting up hundreds of centrifuges.

A council resolution adopted Dec. 23 penalized Tehran and warned of further punishment if it did not comply.

Diplomats from the five permanent Security Council members and Germany planned to meet in London today to begin discussing what steps to take to increase international pressure on Tehran to cooperate.