U.S. sets day for Iran's response

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration warned Iran on Monday that the United States would consider taking action in the United Nations if Tehran did not respond by July 12 to an offer designed to halt uranium enrichment.
That is an important date because Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be holding talks with the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said.
Though the United States still expects an answer this week, Burns said, he stressed the July 12 meeting as pivotal. If Iran has not responded by then, "then I think the pressure will be enormous on the Iranians from all the international community," he said.
"We will have to draw our own conclusions and probably consider some of the measures that have to do with action by the Security Council because by then Iran will have had five weeks to respond to the offer that was originally made back on June 1," Burns said in an interview on C-Span that will be aired Sunday.
The U.S. and its partners have offered Iran concessions in exchange for a verifiable suspension of uranium enrichment. The offer includes civilian nuclear technology from the U.S. and having the U.S. join Britain, France and Germany in now-suspended negotiations with Iran.
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