Blair hopeful of progress on EU-Iran nuclear deal

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Nov 9, IRNA -- Prime Minister Tony Blair says that he hopes 
progress can be made within the next few days on the preliminary 
agreement reached on Iran`s nuclear program and insists that the 
approach is also supported by the US. 
"We are still at the point of negotiation on Iran. A series of 
issues has been agreed at political director level, but not yet at 
inter-governmental level between the European three -- France, Germany
and the United Kingdom --and the Iranian Government," Blair said. 
"We are hopeful that we will be able to make some progress in the 
next few days," he told parliament during questions Monday about his 
attendance at last weekend`s European summit in Brussels. 
The British prime minister did not answer directly on whether he 
would discuss the prospective deal with the US President George W Bush
later this week and ask him to endorse the strategy led by the 
so-called EU3. 
But he insisted that `in respect of Iran, the Americans, France, 
Germany and the UK take the same line: we have all made it clear that 
it is not acceptable for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons capability`. 
"It should come into compliance with the International Atomic 
Energy Agency. We are trying to put maximum pressure on it to do 
that," Blair said. 
The British premier also denied that there were any plans to 
attack Iran by the US or by using Israel as a proxy but emphasized 
that Iran`s nuclear program was a completely differently case that led
to the war against Iraq. 
"No one is talking about an invasion of Iran. No one has ever 
talked about it, to my knowledge. I think it is completely absurd of 
us to talk in this way," he told MPs. 
But Blair added that it was `obviously important for Iran to face 
up to its obligations under the International Atomic Energy Agency`. 
"It should also be recognized that our reasons for taking action 
against Saddam Hussein -- going back over 12 or 13 years -- were his 
invasion of Kuwait, his defiance of United Nations resolutions, and 
the plain intent that he had to develop weapons that cause immense 
damage not just to the Middle East but to the wider world," he said. 
But the prime minister declined to reply that he or the European 
Union would make it abundantly clear that Britain was `wholly opposed 
to the bombing or invasion of Iran by America, Israel or anyone 
else`. 
In an interview with the Financial Times Tuesday, US Secretary of 
State Colin Powell caused further doubts about Washington`s position 
by saying that the White House had not endorsed the European proposal 
on Iran`s nuclear program. 
Instead, he insisted that Iran should not be given what he called 
another chance to `slip away` from referral to the UN Security Council
over the issue. 
Asked whether the US sitting at the same table as Iran at this 
month`s conference on Iraq in Egypt could lead to more direct contact 
between the two countries, he said: "We will see what develops." 
HC/2322/1432
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Blair hopeful of progress on EU-Iran nuclear deal
