US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has played down comments by Iran's most senior religious leader after he suggested it could disrupt oil supplies if pushed.
"Well, I think we shouldn't place too much emphasis on a move of this kind; after all Iran is very dependent on oil revenue," Ms Rice told Fox News in an interview broadcast yesterday.
Asked whether Iranian leaders had already rejected a six-nation diplomatic initiative, by insisting there be no preconditions for new talks on their nuclear program, Rice said Iran had not yet received the proposal and would need time to assess it.
"It's sort of a major crossroads for Iran, and it's perhaps not surprising that they will need a little bit of time to look at it," she told Fox News.
Washington has offered to join European countries in talks with Iran about the nuclear program, but says Iran must first suspend uranium enrichment. Iran has so far said enrichment is a national right.
The timetable for a decision by Iran must not be endless, Ms Rice said on CNN's Late Edition. But in the meantime, "We're not going to react to every statement that comes out of Iran," she said.
She said Iran had a path to resolve the impasse but warned "the international community is committed to a second path should that first path not work."
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, said earlier yesterday that if the United States makes a "wrong move" towards the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, energy flows in the region would be endangered.