AFP, WASHINGTON, Aug 1, 2008 (excerpts) – The United States on Friday set a weekend deadline for Iran to answer an international offer to freeze its nuclear drive and warned of new sanctions if it rejects the package.

“We want and we expect a response this weekend,” the State Department’s acting spokesman Gallegos Gonzalo told reporters. “They were given two weeks. The two weeks is up this weekend.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had given Iran two weeks to come up with a “serious” reply after an international meeting in Geneva on July 19 which saw Tehran broadly accused of stonewalling.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino warned: “Negative consequences await if they don’t have a positive response to our very generous incentives package, and that would possibly come in the form of sanctions.”

Perino also said it was difficult to discern Iranian intentions, calling them “a little bit unpredictable” as she spoke to reporters in Kennebunkport, Maine.
“The Iranians sent mixed messages this week and it’s very hard to tell what the bottom line is,” Perino said.
Perino said the United States would coordinate any action with its partners in the P5-plus-1, or the permanent UN Security Council members — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — plus Germany.