Washington: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said diplomacy remains the main tool to handle the Iran crisis. Rice's remarks came amid media speculation that the US had plans to attack Iran.
"I think what we need to do is have the three tracks on which we are proceeding: One, the UN Security Council track, where we will have action in the Security Council. Secondly, a track that allows us to support by as many means necessary as we possibly can, the negotiations the EU-3 has launched with Iran. And then third, we will pursue with like-minded states if necessary, steps we can take outside of the Security Council," Rice said.
Rice met visiting Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al- Faisal on Thursday and discussed Iran alongside other regional and global issues of interest.
"First of all, we had some time together to discuss regional issues of interest, and global issues of interest," she said after her talks with the Saudi Foreign Minister.
Rice said she discussed with Saud issues including the Middle East, Iran's nuclear issue, Iraq and Lebanon.
"The principal purpose, however, of this meeting was to have our second session of the Strategic Dialogue, a dialogue that was chartered by then-Crown Prince Abdullah, now King Abdulllah of Saudi Arabia, and President Bush when they were in Crawford," Rice said.
The two countries had the first meeting of the dialogue in Riyadh and this was the second meeting of the dialogue.
Meanwhile, a report from Tehran said though Iran was initially enriching uranium from China, it is now using domestically processed uranium in its nuclear programme.
A statement to this effect was made by an Iranian diplomat on Friday after some doubts were cast on his country's recent enrichment claims.
Iran said last month that it had enriched uranium to the level used in power stations for the first time, crediting its own scientists for the breakthrough. The UN nuclear watchdog confirmed this from samples taken in Iran.
But diplomats in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is based, said on Thursday that the processed uranium, uranium hexafluoride (UF6), that Iran purified was almost certainly Chinese UF6 and not Iranian.
(With agency inputs)
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