Rice Stokes Up U.S. Pressure on Iran
"BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on Friday backed recent pro-democracy protests in Iran in comments that stoked a U.S. campaign of criticism of Iran's rulers.
In a guest commentary for Germany's Die Welt newspaper, Rice also repeated an appeal from President Bush to the international community to make clear it would not tolerate construction of nuclear weapons in Iran.
Rice said the Iranian government had allowed a "small unelected clique" to override the will of the people.
Referring to the recent protests in Tehran and other Iranian cities, Rice said:
"The United States sees itself obliged to support the demands of the people of Iran.
"And when Iran strives to get weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons, the international community must take decisive action and make clear that this is unacceptable."...."