Posted on 09/08/2007 5:14:00 PM PDT by nuconvert
EU Ministers Duck Iran Nuclear Issue for Now
September 08, 2007
Reuters
Paul Taylor
VIANA DO CASTELO, Portugal -- Iran's nuclear programme has slipped so far down the European Union's agenda that it did not even figure at a two-day brainstorming session of the bloc's 27 foreign ministers this week.
Diplomats said the absence of discussion of what the United States sees as one of the main threats to international security does not mean the issue had fallen off Europe's radar screen.
But EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who has held long-running nuclear talks with Iran's national security chief, Ali Larijani, has taken a back seat while the U.N. atomic watchdog and Tehran seek to clear up outstanding questions on the Iranian uranium enrichment programme.
"Iran is on hold for the moment," one EU diplomat said.
By threatening to end cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency if the West moves to tighten U.N. sanctions against it, Tehran has effectively stymied Western moves to increase pressure for now, European diplomats said.
Solana told Reuters the EU's twin-track policy of extending a hand for cooperation if Iran suspends its most sensitive nuclear work while maintaining pressure through the U.N. Security Council had not changed.
He said he remained in telephone contact with Larijani, but acknowledged: "Iran has been engaged in negotiation with Vienna, with the (nuclear) agency."
Iran meanwhile continues to add centrifuges and enrich uranium in defiance of U.N. resolutions at its underground plant at Natanz, which the West suspects is intended to fuel a nuclear bomb. The IAEA says progress is slower than Tehran asserts.
GUSTO DIMINISHED
The United States has
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Ostriches sticking their head in the sand. That’ll make the problem go away.
It’s because it’s the EU.
US Leadership also Ducks “Iran Nuclear Issue for Now”
If you duck it now, then you’re ducking it period.
Let me get this straight - The West is concerned the Iran is not cooperating with the UN, so it threatens sanctions...so Iran threatens cooperation with the UN, and we back off?!
Blackmail works!
Since neither "track" appears to have the remotest chance of success, it is clear that the EU continues to live in a bubble of self-deception.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.