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Rice acknowledges Iran policy shift

WASHINGTON: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday confirmed that America had shifted in its position on diplomacy with Iran, with the decision to send a senior envoy to Geneva to participate in nuclear talks with Iran’s top negotiator.

“This decision to send Undersecretary [William] Burns is an affirmation of the policy that we have been pursuing with our European allies ... for some time now,” she said.

“It is, in fact, a strong signal to the entire world that we have been very serious about this diplomacy and we will remain very serious about this diplomacy.”

The U .S., having long imposed sanctions against Iran for its controversial nuclear programme and alleged support for anti-U.S. militants in Iraq, has failed to cripple the oil industry of the Islamic republic, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The sanctions on Iran include measures imposed by the United Nations since 2006 and toughened last year, as well as unilateral steps by the U.S. The effect of the sanctions is to limit Iran’s access to international capital markets and block it from acquiring advanced American and European technology. The measures have caused considerable pain to Iranian businesses. The Iranian Offshore Engineering & Construction Co., an oil-services firm in Tehran, estimates that sanctions have increased the company’s cost by 30 per cent, the Wall Street Journal quoted Najaf Pezeshkian, the company said.

However, the surging international oil price has helped Iran. Iran brought in some $54 billion in oil-export revenue in the first six months of this year, compared with an estimated $57 billion for all of 2007, the newspaper quoted U.S. Energy Information as saying. — Agencies

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