At one point, Cheney invoked the president and said he had made it clear that the United States doesn’t negotiate with tyranny, according to two officials who attended the meeting. “We don’t negotiate with evil; we defeat it,” Cheney declared. That ended the discussion: The Chinese draft was rejected.
Kevin Kellems, Cheney’s spokesman, expressed doubt that Cheney put it that bluntly: “I don’t think he said it. I have never heard him say anything like it.”
President Bush has decided to back European allies in their plan to offer economic incentives to persuade Iran to abandon any effort to build nuclear weapons, a sharp shift in policy for a government that had long refused to bargain for Tehran’s cooperation, senior administration officials said yesterday.
WaPo: U.S. to Back Europeans On Incentives for Iran
