Thursday, December 18, 2008

AP, Washington, December 27, 2008 (excerpts) _ U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the sting of international sanctions is forcing at least some Iranian leaders to second-guess the regime’s rebuff of world demands that it roll back its disputed nuclear program.

“The Iranians are paying real costs for their behavior,” Rice told The Associated Press in a wide-ranging interview Monday on the Iraq war, piracy off Somalia’s coast, Mideast peace prospects and more.

“It hasn’t yet convinced them that they have to change their course, but there are plenty of voices being heard inside that government that are talking about the costs and about whether or not they’ve made a mistake in getting themselves so deeply isolated.”

Rice did not name names, and Iran’s diffuse power structure can make it hard for outsiders, especially the United States, to know whose opinion matters in setting policy.

Rice spoke shortly before flying to New York to attend two days of talks at the U.N. on a range of topics, possibly including Iran, which insists that its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful energy use.

Without predicting that Iran would heed international calls to stop its nuclear activities, Rice said there is reason to believe the accumulating costs created by economic sanctions will make a difference at some point.
“Sooner or later they are going to have to deal with the fact _ particularly with declining oil prices _ that those costs are going to become pretty acute,” she said.