World leaders must stand firm against Tehran's nuclear ambitions and reject Iranian attempts to dictate its own terms for fulfilling a pledge not to develop atomic weapons, the US Secretary of State Dr Condoleezza Rice said yesterday.
Dr Rice said talks with Britain, France and Germany were a chance for Iran to demonstrate it was ready to respect the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which proscribes development of atomic weapons.
"We have diplomatic tools before us, but what we need is unity of purpose and unity of message to the Iranians," Dr Rice said after talks with French Foreign Minister Mr Michel Barnier.
"We should not let the Iranians continue to create new conditions that have to be fulfilled somehow before they are prepared to live up to their international obligations.
"Everybody knows what the Iranians need to do, they just need to do it," she said.
Britain, France and Germany struck an agreement with Iran last November under which Tehran agreed to suspend temporarily its nuclear fuel production programme. - (Reuters)