LONDON, Oct 23: It was seemingly a disappointed Israeli prime minister who returned home from the UK as he failed to get the British prime minister to promise more than additional economic sanctions against Iran if it failed to give up its nuclear ambitions.
Speaking at a joint press conference here on Tuesday at 10 Downing Street along with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert, Mr Gordon Brown side stepped a question put by an Israeli radio journalist who asked, if Britain would consider recalling its ambassador from Tehran if Iran refused to be cowed down by the threatened sanctions.
Mr Brown said Britain was ready to back tougher sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear programme.
The prime minister’s comments came as the EU’s foreign policy chief was due to meet Saeed Jalili, Iran’s newly appointed chief negotiator, in Rome.
Mr Jalili’s surprise appointment, announced on Sunday, is being seen as a hardening of Tehran’s position. He is a close ally of the hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and replaced the more pragmatic Ali Larijani.
”We are ready and will push for further sanctions against Iran,” Mr Brown told the news conference after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
“We will work through the United Nations to achieve this. We are prepared also to have tougher European sanctions. We want to make it clear that we do not support the nuclear ambitions of that country.” Mr Olmert said: “Economic sanctions are effective. They have an important impact already, but they are not sufficient. So there should be more. Up to where? Up until Iran will stop its nuclear programme.”
The US, supported by Britain and France, favours a third round of sanctions but faces opposition in the UN Security Council from Russia and China.
Mohamed ElBaradei, who heads the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on Monday, told the French newspaper Le Monde that it would take Iran three to eight years to produce a nuclear weapon, meaning there would be time for more diplomacy and sanctions.
The IAEA is to report back on Iranian cooperation next month.
Mr Brown disappointed Olmert even more when he said the next step would depend on the IAEA report. “It is on that basis that we are prepared to push for further sanctions at the United Nations,” he added.
“I believe we leave people in no doubt about both the risk that is entailed for the world community by Iranian ambitions for nuclear weapons, but at the same time our determination as nations working together ... to be able to take the action that is necessary through sanctions.”
Mr Brown, however, did not have any good news for the Palestinian as he conditioned British aid to Palestine to guarantees that the state of Israel would be recognised.
