"The United States does not need permanent enemies, we have permanent friends," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said addressing the Council for Foreign Relations last evening.
She offered to meet her Iranian counterpart any place, anywhere and any time to talk about anything provided Tehran suspends its uranium enrichment activities "even for a period of time".
But Iran, she told the think tank, has not accepted her invitation. Rice said while applying pressure on Iran, the path to negotiations has been kept open.
That is the reason for incentives being offered to Tehran in return for suspending its enrichment programme.
The latest package of incentives has been publicised as the United States wants the Iranian people to know that it is not true, as their government, is claiming that it would deny them civil nuclear power.
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"But they should not have the fuel cycle because they cannot be trusted with enrichment and reprocessing which could lead to development of nuclear material and weapons," she said.
Criticising the policies of the Iranian regime, Rice described its economic performance as "woeful," asserting that it is facing runway inflation and importing fuel.