US hints it is ready for unilateral action: EU, Iran in surprise talks
MOSCOW, April 19: A top US diplomat refused on Wednesday to rule out unilateral action by the United States to curb Iran’s nuclear programme but said it would be ‘best’ to work with other countries in doing so.
“We are going to act to deny Iran nuclear weapons capability,” US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns told reporters here after two days of talks with other world powers on how to resolve the Iran nuclear impasse.
“We think that the best way forward is to work with other countries and we’ve invested a lot of time in that,” he said.
But he added: “I think we’ve made our view clear in Washington, our administration, and that is that it is absolutely not in our interest or anyone else’s to have Iran with nuclear weapons.
“And so we’re going to do what we have to do to prevent that from occurring.”
SANCTIONS: Mr Burns claimed that most countries in the UN Security Council and Group of Eight (G8) states were open to imposing sanctions on Iran.
“Nearly every country is considering some sort of sanctions and that is new.”
Asked if anything new had emerged from the discussions on Iran, Mr Burns said: “What is new, I think, is a greater sense of urgency given what the Iranians did last week,” referring to the Iranian president’s announcement that his country had successfully enriched a small amount of uranium for use as nuclear fuel.
EU-IRAN MEETING: Britain, France and Germany were in surprise talks on Wednesday in Moscow with an Iranian delegation to discuss Tehran’s nuclear programme, a European diplomat in London said.
“The meeting is happening at the Iranians’ request,” the diplomat said.
“We will listen to what the Iranians have to say and make clear our positions, as we have done in the past,” he added. “I don’t think we are expecting anything significant to come from it.”
Moscow was the venue because political directors from the British, French and German foreign ministries were already there for talks on Tuesday with US, Chinese and Russian counterparts, the diplomat added.
The three European nations have been at the forefront of European Union efforts — supported by the United States — to discourage Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Tehran announced earlier in the day that an Iranian delegation had arrived in Moscow, led by deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and aides to Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.
The UN Security Council is awaiting a report due by April 28 from International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei on whether Iran has complied with IAEA demands to freeze uranium enrichment.—AFP
