WASHINGTON, June 9 (UPI) -- President Bush said Friday Iran has only limited time to suspend nuclear activities and resume negotiations before U.N. Security Council action is taken.
"... As I said to our friends and partners, if they choose not to come back (to negotiations) -- to suspend verifiably, there must be a consequence. There must be a sense of urgency on our part to send a common message to them," Bush said.
"We've given the Iranians a limited period of time - weeks, not months - to digest a proposal to move forward."
Bush made the comments during a media availability with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.
The United States and European allies suspect Iran is using a self-described civilian nuclear enrichment program to cover efforts to illicitly obtain a nuclear weapon.
Hope of new life in stalemated negotiations was raised last week when the so-called EU-3 states (Britain, France, Germany) which had earlier carried the diplomatic ball with Iran, agreed to present Tehran with a new inducement package to drop its nuclear activities.
The United States, which had not taken direct part in earlier failed talks, offered to join negotiations for the first time if Iran re-embraced earlier international pledges and re-suspended nuclear activities.
Despite Russian and Chinese reluctance, the Security Council is expected to impose some sort of economic price on Tehran if it continues to spurn international will and mandates.
Conflicting signals, however, are again coming out of Iran. Hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week indicated a negotiating breakthrough was possible -- although without preconditions. But on the weekend the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei insisted Iran would not give up its right to nuclear activity.
News reports have now surfaced that Iran has stepped up nuclear fuel enrichment.
