Rice: Profound changes underway in Middle East

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave her strongest rebuke yet yesterday to the renewed hard-line Islamic leadership of Iran, saying that “no civilised nation” can call for the annihilation of another.

Rice was referring to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remark last month that Israel is a ”disgraceful blot” that should be “wiped off the map.” Her remarks drew applause from politicians, diplomats and others gathered for a US-Israeli symposium.

“No civilised nation should have a leader who wishes or hopes or desires or considers it a matter of policy to express that ... another country should be pushed into the sea,” Rice said, speaking slowly and sternly. “It is unacceptable in the international system.”

Speaking a day after part of her agenda for political openness in the Middle East ran into heavy weather, Rice also said the Bush administration is under no illusions about the difficulty of spreading democracy in the region.

“We are not naive about the pace, or difficulty, of democratic change,” Rice said. “but we know that the longing for democratic change is deep and urgently felt.”

Profound change is underway in the Middle East, Rice said near the close of a diplomatic trip that began with encouragement for incipient democracy in post-Saddam Iraq and will end today with condolences for nearly 60 people killed in a terrorist bombing last week in Jordan.

“We have hope for peace today because people no longer accept that despotism is the eternal political condition of the Middle East,” Rice said.

The hard-liner Ahmadinejad was the surprise winner in June elections in Iran, and he immediately set about undoing the reforms and international outreach of the previous moderate-leaning government.

“When we look at a country like Iran we see an educated and sophisticated people who are the bearers of a great civilisation,” Rice said. “And we also see that as Iran’s government has grown more divorced from the will of its citizens it has become more threatening, not less threatening.”

The US and European nations are at odds with Iran over the future of its nuclear program, with a key meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog agency approaching on Nov. 24.

The head of Iran’s nuclear agency ruled out a compromise proposal to enrich uranium for his country’s nuclear program in Russia, saying Saturday the process must be done in Iran.

The US and European negotiators reportedly were willing to accept the compromise to allow Iran to move ahead with its nuclear program while ensuring it does not produce atomic bombs. Enrichment can produce material either for a bomb or for nuclear reactor fuel.

The US claims Iran is hiding nuclear weapons ambitions behind its drive to develop nuclear power for electricity. Iran denies it.