Biden: U.S. Will Talk To Iran

But Vice President Says Washington Will Act If Tehran Does Not Abandon Nuclear Ambitions

(AP)  Vice President Joe Biden delivered a clear message to Iran, saying Saturday the U.S. was willing to talk, but will act to isolate and pressure Tehran if it does not abandon its nuclear ambitions and support for terrorism.

In a sweeping speech to international leaders and security experts here, Biden said the U.S. will strive to act preventively to avoid having to choose between the risks of war and the dangers of inaction.

But he held out the option that the U.S. could take pre-emptive action against Iran if necessary to stop crisis before they start. The U.S., he said, will "continue to develop missile defenses to counter a growing Iranian capability, provided the technology is proven and it is cost-effective."

At the same time, he said that if Tehran gives up its nuclear program and stops backing terrorists, there will be meaningful incentives.

"We will draw upon all the elements of our power - military and diplomatic, intelligence and law enforcement, economic and cultural - to stop crises from occurring before they are in front of us," Biden told the gathering in his 25 minute address.

During much of the morning Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani was in the room, but it was unclear if he was there as Biden spoke. There is no indication yet that the two men will meet during the conference.

Biden's speech laid out for the first time to an international audience the Obama administration's foreign policy tenets, and emphasized diplomacy and cooperation. He also warned allies that they will be expected to share the burdens of fighting extremists and bolstering weaker governments and poor nations.

"America will do more, that's the good news," said Biden. "But the bad news is American will ask for more from our partners."

While President Barack Obama has said the U.S. is ready for direct talks with Iran, Biden's comments made it clear the U.S. is not willing to completely discard the stick, despite early warnings from Tehran.

His comments came a day after Larijani sternly declared that the Obama administration must admit past wrongs before there can be reconciliation.

"The old carrot and stick policy must be discarded," he said, alluding to Western threats and offers of rewards to coax Iran to give up nuclear activities the West views as threatening. "This is a golden opportunity for the United States."

Tehran insists its nuclear aims are peaceful. The former U.S. administration refused one-on-one negotiations with Tehran on the issue unless it made significant nuclear concessions beforehand.

Reaching out to close another rift, Biden said it's time to repair relations between the U.S. and Russia.

He said NATO and Russia should cooperate to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda. But he warned that the U.S. will continue to have differences with Moscow, including opposition to its efforts to carve out independent states in Georgia.

Biden's comments come just days after Kyrgyzstan announced it will shut down American access to the Manas air base, which the U.S. uses to resupply troops in Afghanistan. The decision came when Kyrgyzstan's president was visiting Moscow, hours after securing more than $2 billion in loans and aid from Russia.

As part of his effort to spread responsibility, Biden told the leaders that the U.S. needs their help in taking the detainees now held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He repeated President Obama's vow that the U.S. will adhere to its values, not torture, and will close the detention center that has spurred such criticism from European allies. But he added that allies must work together to combat extremism, and one way other nations can help is to take responsibility for some of the suspected terrorists at Guantanamo.

[miamiderick]

Joe Biden seems to be in a 1960''s time warp, when we built all the best merchandise, cars, planes, and everything, and everybody wanted to buy our products. We had so much money and wealth we could bribe the rest of the world with our foreign aid and investments. Now they have more money than we have, and we are trying to get them to invest in our country. It is hard to understand where Joe is coming from. Somehow, I cant see Iran jumping at the chance for our incentives.

[boandco]

Joe Biden says we are going offer incentives to Iran. Let me guess, what kind of incentives are we going to offer Iran? They have plenty of oil, so they do not need our oil, or any of the oil that we steal from Iraq. They make a lot of money selling oil to China and buy all their electronic and manufactured goods from China, the same place we buy ours. They have plenty of military stuff that they buy from China and Russia. There must be something we can use to entice them to obey our orders. We can allow them to invest in the American banking system or in American industries. We could allow them to buy American cars, as we have a big excess stockpile of them. If we sell them cheap, they may prefer our cars to German, Japanese or Chinese cars. Ours have bigger engines. We could allow them to buy American films and DVDs. They are all in English and suited to American taste, but they might be willing to adjust to our culture. They might want to borrow US Dollars at a good interest rate. We cant really afford any for ourselves, but Obama is printing hundreds of billions of crisp new dollars, and we could make some available to Iran. Come to think about it, there is not much of value that we can offer. We have to wonder what Joe has in mind.
Posted by InTheShade
Maybe Hillary Clinton can offer them White Water Investment shares, or we could offer them Madoff Ponsi shares.

[downsteamjm]

earth5621: Excellent post! Your reply at 1:15 dominoed poor jefglazer.

[mainedoggie]

Why not talk to Iran? The trader bush administration was practically making out with Saudi royals just days after 911!

The tough Texasss Twang rhetoric got us no where.

[alshahab]

Sadly, he''ll have to learn the hard way, and it''ll probably involve the killing of many Americans. Their blood will be on his hands.

Posted by renojmc at 03:03 PM : Feb 08, 2009
_______________________________

Hopefully Americans have already learned the hard way and the killing of Americans as well as others will cease.

[alshahab]

Surah 3.84

Say, "we believe in Allah and what has been revealed to us and what has been revealed to Ibrahim, Isma''il, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, and in (the books) given to Moses, Jesus and the Prophets, from their Lord: we make no distinction between one and another among them, and to Allah do we bow our will in Islam."

[renojmc]

Posted by rudedogrulz at 01:59 PM : Feb 08, 2009
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Such ignorance of reality. We just come off looking weak in the eyes of arab nations. Obama is naive to think that talk will work with these terrorists. Sadly, he''ll have to learn the hard way, and it''ll probably involve the killing of many Americans. Their blood will be on his hands.

[andor3]

so nice to have smart people in charge. what a refreshing change to see that they get it in a way that Bush/Bush/Reagan never could have hoped to.

[smt451d]

Somebody wanna give Biden a hammer so he can pound sand for the next four years? After that, he can always say he did something.

[colonieny]

...........MEDIA HERO ALWAYS A MAN ........
MAN FLIES PLANE INTO OCEAN A HERO ??.....

..........
point : Some airplane captain gets all this media coverage for just skidding an airplane on water, which all pilets are trained to do, and the AIRPLANE is built to land this way, and He becomes a HERO. For what ? doing his job ? ( and who was watching out for the birds ?? and why did they have to fly through natural habitat areas ?? and how many birds died ?? - No tough questions here.)
But for a WOMAN having "too many babies" - Whoa, she gets plenty of tough questions and media digs up her whole life for what ? loving children ?
What kind of media men driven bias is there ?
Foul play.

//sorry everyone, they took down the octoputliet site, as the progressives were being too combative about pouring ssssst on this poor woman just because she wanted to have kids, and love them...