Blair Says Engagement With Iran To Continue Despite Vote
February 26, 2004
The Associated Press
Dow Jones International News
LONDON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday that the U.K. will continue to engage with Iran, despite disappointment that many candidates were disqualified from recent elections there.
"We engage for a reason: to make the world more secure, and to try and encourage a process of change in Iran," Blair said at his monthly news conference.
"In respect to the first, I want to make it very clear to the Iranian authorities that there must be complete and total compliance with the International Atomic Energy Agency. There can't be any partial compliance with that. The demands that they have made have to be met, and met in full, and I don't want there to be any doubt about that.
"In respect to the second, obviously I would like to see all countries give their people the right to participate in full and free elections. And it's sad that so many of the candidates were disqualified from the recent elections in Iran.
"But in the end I think, you know, what countries around the world realize is that if they embrace democracy, the rule of law, human rights, they don't merely become better places to live, they also become more prosperous places. So our engagement is there for a purpose, and the purpose of change," Blair said.
Conservatives won a majority in Iran's 290-seat legislature. More than 2,400 reformist candidates were banned from running by the ruling Islamic establishment.
The European Union has called the elections a "setback for the democratic process in Iran," and the U.S. expressed disappointment.
http://www.dowjones.com/"We engage for a reason: to make the world more secure, and to try and encourage a process of change in Iran," Blair said at his monthly news conference.
Only thing Tony Blair and the Brits care about is looting Iranian oil.