Rice: US Has 'No Permanent Enemies'

[December 22, 2007]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday held out the prospect of improved relations with the remaining two members of President Bush's "axis of evil," Iran and North Korea, as long as they meet international demands over their nuclear programs.

Rice said the Bush administration in its remaining year would welcome fundamental changes in its dealings with the two countries, as well as with Syria, and as an example pointed to warming ties with Libya, which renounced weapons of mass destruction in 2003.

"The United States doesn't have permanent enemies, we're too great a country for that," she told reporters at a State Department press conference.

But she stressed that neither North Korea nor Iran would benefit from closer relations with the U.S. unless they come clean about their weapons intentions.

The third member of the "axis of evil," Saddam Hussein's Iraq, did not do so to Bush's satisfaction and was invaded in 2003, although no weapons of mass destruction were found. The administration has said it wants to deal diplomatically with the threats it sees from North Korea and Iran.

Rice repeated calls for North Korea to honor its pledge to provide a complete declaration of its atomic programs and to disable all nuclear weapons facilities by year's end, although she left open the possibility Pyongyang would miss the deadline for disabling nuclear sites.

"We have been very clear that we expect a declaration from North Korea that is complete and accurate," Rice said, reiterating Washington's position that the country must describe all of its nuclear activities, including possible sales of equipment to other nations and its alleged dabbling in uranium enrichment to complement a known plutonium program.

Rice would not comment on a report about the discovery by U.S. scientists of uranium traces on aluminum tubes in North Korea, apparently contradicting Pyongyang's claim that its acquisition of the tubes was for conventional purposes. Such tubes could be used in the process of converting hot uranium gas into fuel for nuclear weapons, according to the report in Friday's Washington Post.

Rice said, "We have long been concerned about highly enriched uranium as an alternative (nuclear weapons) route in North Korea."

The declaration is due by Dec. 31, which is also the deadline for disabling North Korea's plutonium plant at Yongbyon. However, diplomats have said the North would likely not be safely able to complete one key disablement step - removing the fuel rods from its reactor - for several months.

"I sincerely hope it will be by the end of the year, but the key is to get this process right," Rice said.

If North Korea meets its commitments, the U.S. has said it will remove the North from terrorism and sanctions blacklists and enter into talks to forge a permanent peace deal to officially end the Korean War.

On Iran, Rice said, "I continue to say that if Iran will just do the one thing that is required of it by the Security Council resolutions that have been passed - and that is suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities - then I'm prepared to meet my counterpart any place and anytime and anywhere and we can talk about anything."

She warned the Iranians would not get a pass and sidestepped a question about whether "anywhere" would include the Iranian capital of Tehran.

Iran has thus far refused to comply with the international demands and Rice said that "as long as the Iranians are talking and practicing enrichment, we're not getting anywhere."

She added that the administration was also "open to better relations" with Syria, which it has accused of supporting anti-Israeli terrorist groups, allowing insurgents into Iraq, and interfering in neighboring Lebanon, where a deadlock between pro-Syrian politicians and the Western-backed government has left the country unable to elect a president.

"But they must choose cooperation not confrontation with the international community," Rice said.

Rice pointed to her meeting in Washington next month with Libya's foreign minister as evidence that changes in behavior will be rewarded by the United States. Libya was removed from the U.S. list of "state sponsors of terrorism" in 2005.

Iran, North Korea and Syria are still on that list.

She noted increased international investment in Libya and the interest of U.S. companies in doing business there, since leader Moammar Gadhafi decided to give up weapons of mass destruction.

"I'm looking for an opportunity to extend our relationship further," she said, adding she hopes to visit Libya despite concerns from some lawmakers that Tripoli has still not fulfilled obligations to compensate victims of terrorist attacks. "I actually look forward to the opportunity to go to Libya. I think it will be an important step."

[Associated Press; By MATTHEW LEE]

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