By NNN-KUNA
Washington : US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that the international isolation of Tehran was growing and hoped that “reasonable elements” in the Iranian government would seek to alter Iranian policy.
“I would hope that there are reasonable elements in the Iranian government who do not wish to continue to experience the kind of isolation that Iran is experiencing,” said Rice noting there is no way “to reach (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad” to make him change his policy.
She added in her interview with CNBC Monday that Iran’s international isolation “is growing” and it became a country “that has had two Chapter VII resolutions against it unanimously” in the UN Security Council.
“Hopefully, at some point, there will be leaders in Iran who say we really should not be in a position of being this isolated and will start to change their policies,” she noted.
“Clearly, the power in Iran is the Ayatollah Khamenei, who is the religious leader of the country and the key decision maker. But we have to treat the Iranian government as a whole,” said Rice commenting on the extent of power of Ahmadinejad in Iran.
“I will meet my counterpart any place, anywhere, anytime, if they will just do one thing,” said Rice expressing her readiness to renew diplomatic ties with Tehran in case Iran suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities.
“I only wish the Iranian people had the chance to hear many different views, just as people are going to hear different views,” commented Rice on the appearance of Ahmdadinejad in Columbia University in New York.
The Iranian president requested to visit the World Trade Centre on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York but his request was denied on the ground of security reasons.
Rice noted that the Iranian president’s visit “would have been a travesty.”
“I think this is somebody who is the president of a country that is probably the greatest sponsor of terrorism, someone who is a Holocaust denier, someone who has talked about wiping other countries off the map,” she added.