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Subscribe to RSSAs U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry continues his first overseas trip with a stop in Riyadh, his focus was on the two year old civil war in Syria and Iran's nuclear ambitions. NBC's Catherine Chomiak reports.
RIYADH — Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday there was "finite" time for talks between Iran and world powers on its disputed nuclear program to bear fruit, but gave no hint how long Washington may be willing to negotiate.
Israel, Iran's arch-enemy and convinced Tehran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, has grown impatient with the protracted talks and has threatened preemptive war against Tehran if it deems diplomacy ultimately futile.
Kerry's sentiment was largely echoed by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, who said that the negotiations cannot be endless like the debates of philosophers over how many angels can fit on the head of a pin.
"There is a finite amount of time," Kerry, in the Saudi capital Riyadh on his first overseas trip as the top U.S. diplomat, said of the talks between a group of six world powers and Tehran, Saudi Arabia's main regional adversary.
Kerry was speaking at a news conference with Prince Saud al-Faisal, who suggested Iran was not showing enough seriousness about the discussions, which he said "cannot go on forever."
Iran was positive last week after talks with the powers in Kazakhstan about its nuclear work ended with an agreement to meet again. But Western officials said it had yet to do anything concrete to allay their concerns about its nuclear aspirations.
The United States, China, France, Russia, Britain and Germany offered modest relief from economic sanctions in return for Iran reining in its most sensitive nuclear activity but made clear that no breakthrough was in the offing quickly.
"We can't be like the philosophers who keep talking about how many angels a pinhead can hold," Prince Saud al-Faisal said. "They (the Iranians) have not proved to anybody the urgency in their negotiation," he said. "They reach common understanding only on issues that require further negotiation. And so this is what (has) worried us."
Secretary of State John Kerry pledges $250 million in economic aid if Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi agrees to negotiations over economic reforms.
The United States and many of its allies suspect Iran may be using its civil nuclear program as a cover to develop atomic weapons, a possibility that Israel, which is regarded as the Middle East's only nuclear power, sees as a mortal threat.
The possibility also deeply disturbs many Arab countries in the Gulf who, some analysts say, could choose to pursue their own nuclear programs if Iran were to acquire an atomic bomb, leading to a destabilizing arms race.
In Vienna on Monday, the U.N. nuclear watchdog raised pressure on Iran to finally address suspicions that it has sought to design an atomic bomb, calling for swift inspector access to a military base where relevant explosives tests are believed to have been carried out.
Diplomacy 'first choice'
Iran says its program is solely for peaceful purposes, such as generating electricity and making medical isotopes.
Kerry, in the final stages of a nine-nation, 11-day trip that will also take him to Abu Dhabi and Doha, also had lunch with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the possibility of reviving peace talks with Israel.
Making his first trip abroad as secretary of state, Kerry also met Saudi Crown Prince Salman but a U.S. official said he would not see Saudi King Abdullah, who turns 90 this year.
Kerry said a diplomatic solution on Iran is still preferred by the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voices concern over the progress of Iran's nuclear program while addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
In 2008, Riyadh's ambassador to Washington said King Abdullah had repeatedly urged Washington to "cut off the head of the snake" by striking Iran's nuclear facilities, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.
"We both prefer — and this is important for Iranians to hear and understand — we both prefer diplomacy as the first choice, the preferred choice," Kerry said. "But the window for a diplomatic solution simply cannot by definition remain open indefinitely."
Echoing Western concerns about a possible nuclear arms race in the Middle East in the event that Iran obtained a nuclear bomb, Kerry made a series of arguments for Gulf Arab countries not to pursue a military nuclear capability.
Riyadh has also announced plans to develop 17 gigawatts of atomic energy by 2032 as it moves to reduce domestic oil consumption, freeing up more crude for export.
Related:
Netanyahu says nuclear talks a chance for Iran to 'buy time' to build the bomb
Iran says building 3,000 advanced centrifuges
West wary, Iran upbeat after nuclear talks
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Oh, another trillion dollar war to balance the budget. Plenty of money for war but nothing else. Kerry you will need a huge land army of boots on the ground to stop Iran. The price of a barrel of oil will go thru the roof and push the world into depression unless you take oil off the speculators market.
Mr. Kerry is still living under the Progressive mushroom if he thinks there is "infinet time" for "talks" with Iran to NOT complete their nuclear mission.
He is just carrying the torch for this Administration by thinking money will buy peace and talks will deter the bad guys. Nither one will keep the "terrorists" at bay. The only thing they know is violence.
Set the finite date and let them know it is the end Say 13/13/13 should have them worried and confused.
Iran, as a signer of the NNPT, has every right to continue enriching uranium to 20%. Iran has actually stopped its 20% enrichment and is only enriching to 3.5 %. Since they would need 97% enrichment to make a nuclear weapon, and they are monitored by the IAEA, they have 0 chance of constructing a nuclear weapon. It is real simple.
Israel wants them to stop enriching all together, but that is just tough chit for Israel. If they want to do something about it, let them do it on their own. They won't because they know it won't be as easy as it was attacking Iraq or Syria. They might just lose some precious Jews, so they want the US to attack and absorb the costs in men and treasure. Israel will just cheer us on, saying SUCKER, under thir breaths.
Why is it that every time Netanyahu says something about Iran, our politicians come out like an echo? Today, John Coryn (R)was yapping about Iran. Is he Jewish or just another politician being bribed by AIPAC?
As long as Iran permits the inspections of their enrich ment sites, we don't have a leg to stand on, with regard to an attack on their facilities. Any attack would be a gross violation of international laws.
Iran doesn't have to negotiate anything. They are within all their rights.
We should very publicly give Saudi Arabia 3 Nukes.
Why should they spend years developing them and learning the technology.
Let them light up Iran and be done with it. Sunnis are set to win. Why drag it out.
If Iran suddenly decides to destroy all of their facilities and research we will get the nukes back.
We spent billions on nukes and now are just throwing them away. Might as well get some use out of them.
Some bang for our buck.
Obama backs Sunni over Shia every step of the way.
It wouldn't surprise me to see him DROP THE HAMMER on Iran.
How about a surprise attack by the U.S bunker blasters tonight.? Stop this monkey business of "time running out" It´s run out.! No more wasted words with Iran ,Their Dracula farce is over!!
I think this guy drinks Hillarys douche water.
The Iranians have done nothing but use "negotiations" as a stall tactic. Just ask Hillary. Obama sent her on a year and a half goose chase of trying to negotiate with Iran, only to come up empty handed while the Iranians continued to put in place the systems needed for their program. A process that continues to this day, despite sanctions. And now the Iranians are angling to have sanctions ratcheted down, which will make their ability to withstand sanctions go up, if they ever go through with a deal.
AT this point there simply is no deal, not even the framework of a deal. And the clock is ticking, rapidly.
While it is always best to try and stop them via diplomacy, there comes a point in time when you have to come to the full realization that, to the Iranians, "diplomacy" is part of their strategy to allow them to go forward with their program. A strategy that has been working quite well for them.
the only fruit to bear out of this will be an iranian nuke. then it'll get sold or "lost" and end up being detonated in israel.
then we go in to fight for israel and russia and china join on the side of iran.
There is no way Russia joins in on the side of Iran, if you don't believe me goggle "Nord Ost".
The standard yammering trolls all claim Iran is all for nuclear weapons. That war is just a matter of time.
They may be right, it may come to that, but the stakes in a (semi-)unilateral intervention are very high. We risk a global destabilization at worst and a local loss of credibility as an agent for peaceful change at least. What are the rewards to accrue from this risk? Will we be sure of removing the WMD? No, not without a wholesale conquest of the Iranian people and years of rooting out all the threads of the nuclear program. Limited precision strikes will set them back as they already have, but likely not cause them to stop.
The dark forces of our own Reich Wing are all too ready to drive us deeper into debt with a new war, all too ready to throw America under the bus to feed their short term political agenda, all too ready to flim flam the citizens with exaggerated claims of how many nearly ready bombs the Iranians might have. Now -- we got lied to by the great chicken hawk Cheney and Bush, his "box 'o rocks" grade lap dog, once before.
The sanctions are beginning to punish the Iranians very firmly, some reports of hyper inflation are emerging. Is there anything more we can do?
Yes. We could offer to help the Iranians change their program over to Thorium based nuclear power reactions, in addition to perhaps agreeing to let the Russians stock their existing enriched uranium in "escrow" The Thorium nuclear fuel cycle offers no practical path to weapons grade material, it's just outside the rules of nuclear chemistry, a technical impossibility. Whether or not the Iranians now "want" the bomb, whether or not they can be held to a "trust but verify" protocol, the action to move to the Thorium reactor technology is unequivocal — fission bomb production is no longer an option.
Will they do it? Well it's as clear a "red line" as anything based on intelligence estimates of how many fissile piles of Plutonium they might have. It's a less dangerous "red line" than perhaps waiting until they actually test a device — and they must do that test at some point to have any credible nuclear arsenal.
Moreover a failure to accept this option pretty much proves that "nuclear energy for power only" is clearly a lie. A lie that is then much clearer to the rest of the world than any case made based on general fear levels or dicey intelligence estimates.
Why not try it?
Iran will say 'OK' and Kerry will give them $1,000,000,000 in aid.
This dufass is globe hopping around like Santa Claus dishing out millions to terrorist nations. Hillary does not look too bad right now.........
Mitt Romney doesn't look to bad right now.
It will all end badly for Iran.
...heard that song before! make a threat, don't follow through, make another threat, don't follow through. no wonder the arab world has no respect for the u.s.
The fact that you possess nuclear weapons authorized you to determine the day?
Kerry, by golly, must REALLY, REALLY mean it this time. Isn't he the same jackass who said the sanctions are crippling Iran? You know, the ones thay re skirting?
Meanwhile, whakmadinijob chuckles....
Heres a snapshot of the US and Israeli LIES
Netanyahu 1992: Iran will Have the Bomb by 1997
Scott Peterson at the Christian Science Monitor did a useful timeline for dire Israeli and US predictions of an imminent Iranian nuclear weapon, beginning 20 years ago.
1992: Israeli member of parliament Binyamin Netanyahu predicts that Iran was "3 to 5 years" from having a nuclear weapon.
1992: Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres predicts an Iranian nuclear warhead by 1999 to French TV.
1995: The New York Times quotes US and Israeli officials saying that Iran would have the bomb by 2000.
1998: Donald Rumsfeld tells Congress that Iran could have an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit the US by 2003
So you say they have been working on it for 20 years.
They have been working with the Koreans so they are probably real close.
For all we know they may already have several.
I don't really trust the accuracy of our Intelligence agencies.
They could just buy one from multiple sources.
As long as we continue to support Israeli boneheads, and we cannot disarm its nukes, we should not and cannot be harassing Iran EVEN IF it is attempting to develop nukes.
So Israel wants US to attack Iran, get our young brave soldiers killed, we lose trillions in the process, we make more Enemies in the world, all the while freeloader Israelis enjoying themselves, getting rich in the process, and, continue massacring poor Palestinians.
kerry should just enjoy the trip and shut his mouth.. he can talk about arts, opera etc...
Actually, Israel wants to attack Iran personally, they only hold back as a favor to US.
So, if you are worried about poor wittle Iran, tell them to loose the nukes.
Eli,
israel will get its butt kicked if they attack iran. Sure, israel can succeed damaging the facilities, but will suffer heavy casualties in the next 10 years. Thats why israeli boneheads want US to do the attacking so israel can sit back and relax.
Now that Hagel is the defense man, israel is on his own.
Maybe something good will come out of israel's attack on iran... Say, no more israel in ME?
Unless Kerry comes right out and says, "on August 14th at 3:00 PM local time the Israelis will deploy five tactical nuclear weapons in downtown Tehran unless Iran abandons its nuclear research now.", he is wasting his time.
For Kerry to be effective as a mild, urbane Secretary of State, there must be a dangerous and determined president behind him. That's how good cop, bad cop works. What we have here will not impress the mullahs in Tehran.
Read an article that said on 3/20 or 3/21 Iran no longer contracts it's oil based on trading for Federal Reserve notes, supposedly they will be taking Euros, now rumor also has it that's what Saddam Hussein told those he traded oil with and I've read a lot of print that claimed Qaddafi wanted gold for his oil instead of Federal Reserve notes. Found another article about China now contracting only with the Yuan for oil trading. The Rothschild clan has played us and we will be their war profiteer puppet once again. Congress and Obama renewed the 100 year charter with the Federal Reserve recently, we are stuck selling those notes but the customers are jumping out of the Fed note buying & trading business.