Rice stresses US policy of ‘ending confrontation’

* Says US doesn’t have permanent enemies

WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday set out the priorities for her last year as Washington’s top diplomat, citing a US policy “open to ending conflict and confrontation” everywhere.

“We don’t have permanent enemies - the United States doesn’t,” Rice told a year-end press conference when asked about whether she was willing eventually to visit Iran, Syria and North Korea. “What we have is a policy that is open to ending conflict and confrontation with any country that is willing to meet us on those terms,” Rice said.

She also listed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that the United States reactivated for the first time in seven years. “In the year to come, the president and I will actively facilitate and support these negotiations,” Rice said.

Rice also held out an olive branch to both past and current enemies of the Bush administration, while stressing that Washington would continue to use its power to achieve its strategic objectives. “With Syria and Iran we remain open to better relations, but they must choose cooperation not confrontation with the international community,” Rice said. She reiterated her offer to “meet my counterpart any place and anytime and anywhere and we can talk about anything” if Iran suspends uranium enrichment, which Washington fears is aimed at building a nuclear bomb. But she hinted there was little chance she would travel to Iran, adding “let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

She added that Washington would continue to apply pressure behind its diplomacy, referring to US efforts to obtain a third round of UN Security Council punitive sanctions against Iran.

On North Korea, Rice recalled the hopes of a different future raised by the agreements of September 2005 and February 19 aimed at disabling and eventually dismantling the Stalinist country’s nuclear weapons programme. If denuclearisation continues, she said, it puts matters “on a pathway toward better political relations between the United States and North Korea.” She was clearer about the prospect of traveling to Libya, which has had a rapprochement in ties with the United States since it renounced its programmes of weapons of mass destruction in 2003. afp

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