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White House Sounds Out Europeans on Iran
Tuesday October 12, 2004 11:16 PM
By BARRY SCHWEID
AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration will talk with European allies later this week about possible economic incentives to Iran if it agrees to suspend the enrichment of uranium, a key step in the production of nuclear weapons, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
While the Bush administration has not yet taken a stand on whether to dangle such incentives before Tehran, a high-profile meeting with allies on the issue would mark a significant shift in U.S. strategy and could have implications in the presidential race.
In the meantime, the administration continues to insist that Iran must stop developing nuclear weapons or face sanctions from the United Nations.
On several occasions, the administration has tried to take the dispute to the U.N. Security Council. Another attempt is virtually certain after a meeting in late November of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency if Iran has not complied by then.
Working with European allies to resolve a major security problem is the sort of multilateral diplomacy that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has charged is lacking in the administration. President Bush disputes that charge.
``They are going to come and tell us what kind of package and discussions they have been having, and we will hear them out,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said of the meeting Friday with European allies.
Britain, France and Germany are inclined to try to work out some sort of agreement with Iran and are not inclined at this point to impose economic sanctions.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the proposed European package included providing fuel to Iran for civilian nuclear projects. That official and another, also speaking anonymously, said that while the administration was interested in the idea of proposing a package of incentives, none of Europe's specific proposals had received U.S. endorsement.
European diplomats said the talks with the Bush administration were in an initial stage. They also said the United States was holding on to its option of pushing for U.N. Security Council action against Iran if it is found in defiance of international demands to stop all activities related to uranium enrichment.
A European government official said Russia was skeptical of any Security Council move to punish Iran because of concerns that Russia's $800 million deal to build a nuclear reactor in Bushehr, in southern Iran, could be jeopardized.
Also Tuesday, Iran's foreign minister offered European governments assurances that his government would never produce nuclear bombs if Iran's right to enrich uranium was recognized.
``The time has come for Europe to take a step forward and suggest that our legitimate right for complete use of nuclear energy is recognized,'' Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said in a speech to an energy conference in Tehran.
White House spokesman Sean McCormack said the package the Europeans were touting was not ``different materially'' from proposal that have already been discussed with Tehran.
Invited to the meeting on Iran, along with the three European allies, were the other members of the G-8 group of leading industrialized countries - Russia, Japan, Italy and Canada. The meeting grows out of talks Secretary of State Colin Powell held last month with G-8 foreign ministers at the United Nations in New York.
President Bush condemned Iran in his 2001 State of the Union address as part of an ``axis of evil'' along with Iraq and North Korea.
Negotiations to end North Korea's nuclear program are sputtering. Talks have been suspended, and while Bush defends his strategy of a joint approach with South Korea, Japan, Russia and China, Kerry is calling for one-on-one talks.
In 1994 North Korea promised to freeze its plutonium program and put it under international inspection in exchange for civilian energy assistance from South Korea and Japan.
The Europeans' proposal that civilian nuclear fuel might be provided to Iran to stop enriching uranium is somewhat parallel to the Clinton administration's deal with North Korea.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4546602,00.html