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U.S., Europeans drift apart over what to do with Iran (what else is new?)
September 15, 2004 BY GEORGE JAHN VIENNA, Austria -- A U.S.-European rift surfaced Tuesday over how harshly to deal with Iran and its suspect nuclear program, with the Europeans ignoring American suggestions and circulating their own recommendations to other delegates at a key meeting of the U.N. atomic agency. Diplomats at a board of governors meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency had suggested earlier that the United States and the European Union were making progress in drafting common language for a resolution that would set a deadline for Iran to meet demands designed to dispel fears it was trying to make nuclear arms. But the latest draft, obtained by the Associated Press and being circulated informally Tuesday for reaction from other delegations, was nearly exactly the one that France, Britain and Germany came up with Friday -- a text that U.S. officials had said would be unacceptable. The IAEA meeting has become the main battleground between Iran and Washington, which wants to take Iran before the U.N. Security Council for alleged violations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The Americans asked the draft include an Oct. 31 deadline. The EU text remained vaguer in demands and in a time frame. Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-09-15 |
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