CNBC, September 23, 2008 – In an intervew With Steve Leisman of CNBC, US Secretaty of State Rice asserted: We know that the latest discussions between the Iranians and Javier Solana, the European Union representative, didn’t go anywhere. So of course we’re going to pursue the Security Council track.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, let me start by saying that we all know that we’re committed to two tracks: One is negotiation if the Iranians are prepared to accept the goodwill of the international community and the quite generous package that the six parties have put on the table; the other is that we have a Security Council track that has already produced three Security Council resolutions and we can – we will talk about another.

QUESTION: And is your patience endless here? Is there some timetable in your mind as to when we need to have that meeting?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we’ll have the meeting when the meeting is well prepared. The political directors met on Friday in Washington. They’ll meet again. We believe very strongly that the Iranians have given us every reason to pursue the Security Council track. There was a recent IAEA report, International Atomic Energy Agency report, that essentially says the Iranians are not cooperating, that they’ve reached an impasse. We know that the latest discussions between the Iranians and Javier Solana, the European Union representative, didn’t go anywhere. So of course we’re going to pursue the second track. But the Russians said that they didn’t think the time was right for a meeting. We called them and said you’re absolutely right; let’s do it when we’re ready.