Posted on 09/16/2007 4:32:08 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PARIS - European leaders are considering their own economic sanctions against Iran over its refusal to forgo parts of its nuclear program, France's foreign minister said Sunday, indicating that U.N.-imposed penalties have not been effective.
Bernard Kouchner, speaking on RTL radio, also warned that the international community should be prepared for the possibility of war in the event that Iran obtains atomic weapons.
The U.S., its European allies and other world powers suspect Iranian authorities of seeking nuclear weapons, although Tehran insists its atomic activities are aimed only at producing energy.
Negotiations and two sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions have failed to persuade Iran to stop its uranium enrichment program, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear power plants as well as material used in atomic weapons.
Kouchner called for "more effective sanctions" against Iran if it continues to resist the demands to suspend uranium enrichment.
"We will not accept that such a bomb is made. We must prepare ourselves for the worst," he said, specifying that could mean a war. He did not elaborate on what kind of preparations that would entail.
"We have decided, while negotiations are under way ... to prepare for eventual sanctions outside the United Nations, which would be European sanctions," he said.
Kouchner was not specific about what penalties Europe might impose, other than to say they could be "economic sanctions regarding financial movements."
"Our German friends proposed this. We discussed it a few days ago," he said.
Sarkozy reportedly floated the possibility of European sanctions against Iran this summer. In a major foreign policy speech last month, he mentioned the possibility of an attack on Iran, which he said would be as "catastrophic" as Iran getting a nuclear bomb.
In Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Bush administration is committed, for now, to using diplomatic and economic means to counter the potential nuclear threat from Iran.
"I think that the administration believes at this point that continuing to try and deal with the Iranian threat, the Iranian challenge, through diplomatic and economic means is by far the preferable approach. That's the one we are using," the Pentagon chief said.
Meanwhile, Iran's foreign minister was quoted as saying on state television that enriched uranium fuel is ready to be shipped from Russia to Iran's first nuclear power plant.
The project has been beset by repeated delays due to payment problems on the Iranian side, according to the Russians. Tehran, however, maintains it is because Moscow has been caving into Western pressure to halt the project.
Sunday's announcement comes after talks in Moscow between Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Russian nuclear chief Sergei Kiriyenko to address delays in completing the $1 billion Bushehr power plant.
Iran currently has the ability to enrich small amounts of uranium for nuclear fuel but still nowhere near enough to power a nuclear plant, much less create a weapon. Russian officials say the Bushehr plant cannot open until six months after the current fuel is delivered.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner walks to a car after news conference in Cairo September 13, 2007. Kouchner said on Sunday his country had to prepare for the possibility of war against Iran over its nuclear program, but he did not believe any such action was imminent. REUTERS/Nasser Nuri/Files
yitbos
I don't know what this guy's smoking.The trick is to take out their nuke facilities *before* they finish the first one.
Talk about being behind the eight ball...
Maybe Europe realizes that if Iran uses its nuclear weapons, some of that radioactive fallout will contaminate Europe...
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