Efforts by some key US allies to engage rather than isolate Iran have failed to win an end to Tehran's support for terrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere, the White House said.
"The problem with Iran is that its policies unfortunately believe the notion that engagement with it has helped," US national security advisor Condoleezza Rice said in remarks to students of foreign policy.
"Iranian behavior puts it squarely in the 'axis of evil,' whether it is weapons of mass destruction, or terrorism," Rice said Monday at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.
"Our problem with Iran is in policies that are so destructive to international politics, from the support of terrorism around the world to the support of terrorism in the Middle East," as well as the hold on power of an "unelected few" who resist reforms, she was quoted as saying by AFP.
Rice acknowledged "some useful interaction" between Washington and Tehran on the issue of Afghanistan. And she said that, while there were positive forces in Iran, "those positive forces are not quite yet capable of changing the nature of Iran's behavior." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
