Rice: Dialogue with Iran is surrender to blackmail

[sabra]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3351344,00.html

Rice: Dialogue with Iran is surrender to blackmail

WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended in a Congress hearing Thursday the Bush administration's opposition to maintaining contacts with Iran and Syria in an effort to recruit their help in Iraq, in opposition to the recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton Report.

Rice explained that Iranian and Syrian aid in Iraq has a clear price tag that the United States is unwilling to pay.

Rice appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee a day after Bush's speech unveiling his strategic change in Iraq, in which he declared a series of moves to be made in an attempt to stabilize the country, and to put an end to the spiraling violence that has taken a high toll on American lives in Iraq.

In the hearing, which was summoned Democratic Senator Joe Biden, Republican Senator Richard Lugar said that the United States needs to hold a dialogue with Tehran and Damascus.

Rice responded that dialogue with Iran and Syria will mean that the United States is succumbing to blackmail. Iran, according to her, will demand in exchange for aiding the US in Iraq that the US lighten up its tough stance on Tehran's nuclear program.