U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2007)

U.S. Department of State

Interview on The Charlie Rose Show

R. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs
Washington, DC
October 1, 2007

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CHARLIE ROSE: So, we all expected that coming out of this session in the U.N., where you had a chance to talk to everybody, there would be an acknowledged next round of sanctions that might be productive in sending a message to Iran. It didn't happen.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: We got halfway there. We have an agreement with the Russians and Chinese and the Europeans that we are going to put together a third sanctions resolution, under Chapter 7. And that has the advantage of everyone has to apply that. And we said that we were going to vote that resolution in the month of November, about six weeks from now, unless Mohamed ElBaradei, who's negotiating with the Iranians on the technical aspects of their program, and Javier Solana, our lead European diplomat, unless they can show that they're making positive progress with the Iranians. So I think Secretary Rice was able to get that much done.

But you know, this is a obviously a product of a compromise among six very different nations. If the United States had its way, we would have voted on those sanctions several months ago, but we've got to work in terms of this larger international (inaudible)...

CHARLIE ROSE: But the conventional wisdom is that the Russians and especially the Chinese were not prepared to go there.

CHARLIE ROSE: I think that's right. Russia and China want to give diplomacy, at least ElBaradei's diplomacy, a little bit more time to work. We say to them, look, sanctions are an instrument of diplomacy, and the Iranians are accelerating their efforts at Natanz, where they're doing the enrichment research.

CHARLIE ROSE: Right. Right.

CHARLIE ROSE: And they've defied the Security Council resolutions that we put together. We, Russia, China, the United States and Europe.

And so therefore, to make the U.N. credible and the Security Council credible, we've got to back up our actions, our words with some actions. And so, we are pressing the Chinese and Russians towards a third resolution, because we want to stay on a diplomatic track. We want to give diplomacy a chance to succeed, but diplomacy has to be credible to succeed in this instance.

CHARLIE ROSE: Do the Russians and the Chinese believe that the Iranians want to build a nuclear weapon?

CHARLIE ROSE: I have been working for two-and-a-half years with the Russians and Chinese and the Europeans and lots of other countries on this effort to try to constrain the Iranians and prevent them from becoming nuclear capable. I have never had a private conversation with any diplomat from any country where that person said we don't believe Iran is trying to create a nuclear weapons capability. Everybody assumes that they are.

And so, it's our task to try to build a big international coalition with a lot of different countries to try to focus the spotlight on what the Iranians are doing, and to make it worthwhile to the Iranians to stop. If diplomacy is going to succeed, there has to be something in it for Iran. And we've tried this.

(CROSSTALK)

CHARLIE ROSE: And what's in it for Iran to negotiate?

CHARLIE ROSE: Well, you take them at their word. You had President Ahmadinejad on this program a week ago. What the Iranians say is, we're not interested in nuclear weapons, we're interested in civil nuclear power.

CHARLIE ROSE: Right.

CHARLIE ROSE: We need electricity for our people. Well, that's understandable. So what we did, Russia, China, the United States and Europe, we went to them a year-and-a-half ago and said, we'll build you an international civil nuclear .

CHARLIE ROSE: I raised that issue with him. He says they've broken contracts before and the contract is not sufficient.

CHARLIE ROSE: Well, I think it's an odd thing for him to say, Ahmadinejad to say, when you've got Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao and George Bush and all the European leaders saying the same thing. The group of us will form a consortium. We'll build you nuclear power stations. We'll ship in the nuclear fuel. We'll take out the spent fuel. We'll do that for you. And if you're genuinely interested in your people's economic development

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