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US, EU still working sanctions plan for Iran for pursuing nuke enhancement | Plans are still being worked out by the United States and its European
on how to punish Iran if nuclear program-related talks that begin on Thursday
are not successful. The Washington Times quoted the White House and a French official,
as saying on Wednesday that American and European strategies have largely converged
on the need for expanding economic sanctions if Iran does not open its nuclear
program to international inspection and abandon any ambitions to produce nuclear
weapons. Russia and China, however, are not so sure that this is the right way
to proceed and could undercut whatever steps Washington and European capitals
might take. There is a general agreement on measures to further restrict Iran's
ability to trade with the outside world, said government officials and analysts
in Europe and Washington, although the precise nature of new sanctions is still
the subject of intense discussions. While the French diplomat said that all were
united on the perspective, the White House official called the final package "an
ongoing project." "We have done a tremendous amount of work and have done a lot
of consultations around the world, with respect to the pressure track. We're prepared
on a range of areas," said the official, who spoke to reporters at the White House
on the condition of anonymity. Thursday's talks in Geneva will be the first comprehensive,
publicly acknowledged negotiations between Iran and the United States since the
United States broke diplomatic relations with Iran in 1980 while it held U.S.
diplomats hostage. In an apparent effort to improve the atmosphere for the talks,
Iran has allowed Swiss diplomats who represent U.S. interests in Iran to visit
three American hikers detained by Iran near the Iraq border in late July. Iran
also has released several political prisoners including a businessman, Bijan Khajepour,
who has traveled frequently to the United States, said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran
specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. Meanwhile,
the United States allowed Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to visit
Washington on Wednesday for several hours, the first time in a decade that an
Iranian official of that level has been permitted outside the New York area. Assistant
Secretary of State P.J. Crowley said the Iranians made the request "in the last
day or two" and that Mottaki visited Iran's interest section in Washington. Mr.
Crowley called the visit "an interesting coincidence" but said, "I would not read
a lot into this." White House senior officials said Mottaki was "not seeing anybody
from the administration." Expectations going into the Geneva meeting are low.
Thursday's talks are expected to be tough. Iranian officials have insisted that
they were not obliged to disclose the new uranium facility until shortly before
they were ready to begin processing uranium. Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads the Atomic
Energy Organization of Iran, said Tuesday that his country built the plant inside
a mountain and next to a military base as insurance in case of foreign attack
on a larger enrichment plant at Natanz. France, Britain and Germany are now seen
as favoring new or expanded sanctions on shipping insurance and export credits,
they have little appetite for the idea gaining traction in Congress to block exports
of refined petroleum products such as gasoline to Iran. Iran imports 40 percent
of its gasoline. Other analysts say the figure has dropped to 25 percent as Iran
has constructed new refineries. Some European countries have already sharply reduced
their export credits to companies doing business with Iran. Germany last year
approved $95 million in such export credits, less than one-tenth the amount it
granted in 2006. "We need to see practical, tangible steps to build confidence
in Iranian intentions," including willingness to open Iran's nuclear facilities
to thorough international inspection," a senior U.S. official in Geneva said Wednesday.
He said a 2007 proposal for a so-called freeze-for-freeze - under which no new
sanctions would be imposed and Iran would not expand its uranium enrichment program
for six weeks - "remains the starting point for us for discussions." |
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