Europe, Headlines, Middle East & North Africa, North America

POLITICS: Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions a Sore Point in EU-U.S. Relations

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Feb 10 2005 (IPS) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the European Union Wednesday to adopt a tougher stance towards Iran, and to make it clear that Tehran risked U.N. sanctions if it did not halt its nuclear programme.

Iran has started to enrich uranium, ostensibly for energy production. However, enriched uranium serves as fuel for both atomic bombs and nuclear power plants – raising fears that Tehran’s real desire is to build nuclear weapons.

Nearing the end of an eight-day fence-mending tour of ten European and Middle Eastern capitals, Rice told reporters in the Belgian capital, Brussels, that although the U.S. had not set a deadline for talks on the Iranian programme, “they cannot go on forever”.

She added that the Bush administration still believed the United Nations should also adopt a more critical position on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

At a press briefing held at the European Commission, the European Union, its executive and the United States also declared that a fresh start had been made with transatlantic relations to bridge divisions created by the U.S.-led war on Iraq.

“The times are different now than they were a year ago or two years ago when we did have our differences – not with everyone, but with a number of states,” said Rice. “While we still had common interests and common values I don’t think we had a common agenda for a while on what was really before us, at least in regards to Iraq.”

However, Rice’s charm offensive could not completely disguise the fact that Washington and Europe still have deep-seated differences over how the situation in Iran should be dealt with.

France, Germany and the UK have tried to negotiate a freeze – and, ultimately, the abandonment – of Iran’s nuclear activities, promising economic and technological aid in return for compliance on the part of Tehran. They have also pledged security guarantees.

The U.S, for its part, attempted last year to get Iran reported to the U.N. Security Council, to face possible sanctions.

“The Iranians need to get that message,” Rice told the media in Brussels, adding that Tehran should know that “there are other steps” the international community could take if it failed to heed warnings about its nuclear programme.

Rice’s comments echoed remarks she had made in an earlier interview with U.S. television channel Fox News.

“They (the Iranians) need to hear that the discussions that they are in with the Europeans are not going to be a kind of way station where they are allowed to continue their activities – that there’s going to be an end to this and that they are going to end up in the Security Council,” she said.

“Iranians need to hear that if they are unwilling to take the deal, really, that the Europeans are giving…then the Security Council referral looms,” Rice added. “I don’t know that anyone has said that as clearly as they should to the Iranians.”

Referral of this matter to the Security Council would require approval by the 35-member board of governors of the U.N’s International Atomic Energy Agency, where Europe’s support is essential.

Britain has moved closer to the U.S. position, but Germany and France say diplomacy rather than threats still provides a better chance of reaching a deal with Iran. The Bush administration has long viewed the European process as futile and thinks Iran is stalling.

In his State of the Union speech Feb. 3, U.S. President George Bush said the U.S. saw Iran as a threat.

“Today, Iran remains the world’s primary state sponsor of terror — pursuing nuclear weapons while depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve…The Iranian regime must give up its uranium-enrichment program and any plutonium reprocessing and end its support for terror,” he said.

In Tehran, President Mohammad Khatami said Wednesday that no Iranian government would ever abandon the progress the country has made in developing peaceful nuclear technology.

Iran has suspended its programme to enrich uranium while it continues to negotiate with the Europeans, but Khatami reiterated Iran’s position that the action was temporary.

The secretary of state’s activities Wednesday also included lunch with her counterparts from countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), and talks with EU leaders.

Rice’s tour has taken her to France and Germany, two of the sternest critics of the United States’ invasion of Iraq, and two of six NATO members that have refused to participate in a postwar force that the grouping has deployed there. Rice also visited Britain, Italy and Poland, all allies in Iraq, as well as Turkey during the European portion of her trip.