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UK sets deadline on Iran
The British government yesterday set a November ultimatum for Iran to suspend all activities linked to production of a nuclear bomb - a deadline that effectively marks the failure of more than a year of negotiations between Tehran and the European troika of Britain, France and Germany. Refusal by Iran to comply would produce a new Middle East crisis in which the issue would almost certainly be referred to the United Nations security council, which could opt for punitive action. Although the deadline is designed to pile pressure on Iran, the early signs from Tehran are that the theocratic regime is unwilling to comply unconditionally and that it is seeking major concessions from the west in return, including a trade agreement and transfer of civil nuclear technology. A British official said yesterday that Iran must comply by the November board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN watchdog body. "Iran needs to meet its commitments. We would like it to meet its commitments before then, but if it doesn't, Iran needs to know and it needs to know now, that there is going to be a decision point in November and at that point a very serious option ... is referral to the United Nations security council," he said. "We cannot have any kind of negotiation that goes on forever. At some point you have got to decide whether negotiating further makes sense, or whether you need to do something else." The new position was agreed by British, French and German foreign ministers at a meeting in the Netherlands at the weekend. The German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, yesterday warned that Iran's nuclear activities were "extremely alarming" and the German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, described the prospect of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East as the "nightmare scenario". Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-09-09 |
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