WASHINGTON/TEHRAN, 23 May 2008 — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday defended as “successful” the US administration’s policy on Iran after Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama criticized its approach.

Though she tried to avoid commenting on the presidential campaign, Rice told reporters that the United States and other powers agreed on what she considers a common, effective approach to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“I will note that the Iranian problem is not just America’s problem, it is an international issue, and it is an issue on which the international community is united in confronting Iran with choices before it,” Rice said.

Flanked by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, a US ally on Iran and other issues, Rice recalled that Tehran must either halt its enrichment of uranium in return for economic benefits or face international isolation.

With its continued defiance, she said, the UN Security Council has adopted three sanctions resolutions against Iran while the United States has taken punitive measures of its own.

And Iran has paid an economic price with the “drying up” of international investment in its oil industry, economic infrastructure and export credits, the secretary of state said.

Meanwhile, Iran protested to the United States on Wednesday over what it said was a US-based counterrevolutionary group responsible for a deadly mosque bombing.

The protest was lodged through the Swiss Embassy, which looks after US interests in Iran in the absence of diplomatic ties.

“The Swiss charge d’affaires was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in the absence of its ambassador and he was informed of Iran’s strong protest against free activities of a terrorist counterrevolutionary group in the US,” the ISNA news agency reported.

“According to undeniable and strong evidence and documents, a terrorist network that was involved in the Shiraz mosque blast is supported and directed by an anti-revolutionary group inside the US,” ISNA said, quoting a Foreign Ministry director for the Americas.

“Acting from inside America, this counterrevolutionary group used the media and the Internet to recruit the terrorists, finance, train and send them to Iran, and it has claimed responsibility for the blast,” it said. It added that the network intended to carry out “other terrorist acts in the country.