Top Bush administration officials warn Iran

WASHINGTON - Three top Bush administration officials issued harsh words against Iran on Tuesday, underscoring growing tension over the Middle East nation’s continued refusal to back down on its nuclear program.

Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice both warned of dire consequences if Iran continued its nuclear fuel enrichment, while Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed that Iranian Revolutionary Guard elements had infiltrated Iraq to cause trouble.

“They are currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq,” Rumsfeld said while denying that an increase in violence between sects in Iraq is the beginning of a civil war there. “And we know it. And it is something that they, I think, will look back on as having been an error in judgment.”

He would not be more specific except to say the infiltrators were members of the Al Quds Division of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Cheney, meanwhile, said that enrichment of nuclear fuel on Iranian territory was unacceptable.

Cheney warns of ‘meaningful consequences’
“The Iranian regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course, the international community is prepared to impose meaningful consequences,” Cheney said in a speech to the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC.

“For our part, the United States is keeping all options on the table,” he said. “We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

In the past, the U.S. has said it has no intention of using military force for now but has declined to completely rule it out.

Cheney’s comments came as Russia appeared to close ranks with the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program.

In Washington, Rice also warned Iran — but shied away from warning of immediate U.N. sanctions — after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

At a joint State Department news conference, Lavrov said there was no compromise in sight with Iran.

Russia has been negotiating with Iran and has proposed enriching fuel on Russian soil for Iran's energy need.

A European official, in Vienna for the IAEA meeting, had said the Russian plan would fail if the Americans opposed it.

Referred to U.N. Security Council
The International Atomic Energy Agency already has referred the Iranian nuclear issue to the U.N. Security Council, a move spearheaded by the Bush administration.

“We will see what is necessary to do in the Security Council,” Rice said. She said there was still time for Iran to change its ways.

From the State Department, Rice and Lavrov were headed to the White House for a meeting with President Bush.

Earlier in the day, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the U.S. expects the U.N. Security Council to move forward to rebuke Tehran for its disputed nuclear program.

A senior Western diplomat familiar with the Security Council negotiations said France and Britain those would begin preparing a statement later in the day “urging” Iran to re-impose a freeze on all enrichment, which can be misused to make nuclear arms.

The diplomat, who demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing strategy on Iran, said the statement also would call on Iran to fully cooperate with IAEA inspectors trying to establish whether the country had ever tried to make such weapons — all requests made earlier by the board.

IAEA weighs Iran’s proposal
A diplomat in Vienna, Austria — where the 35-nation IAEA board is meeting — said that Iran is offering to suspend full-scale uranium enrichment for up to two years.

The diplomat, who demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the issue, said Tehran’s offer was made Friday by chief Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani in Moscow in the context of contacts between Iran and Russia on moving Tehran’s enrichment program to Russia.

The diplomat also said Germany remained open to the proposal, which would allow the Iranians to run 20 uranium-enriching centrifuges domestically while ceding control of large-scale enrichment to Moscow, on Russian soil.

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