Straw denies any divergence with France on approach to Iran
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, April 5, IRNA
UK Straw-Iran
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw Tuesday denied that there were any differences with France over Paris favoring to have more positive relations with Iran.
"The answer on whether there is any divergence between ourselves and France, there isn't," Straw told MPs during the last session of Foreign Affairs questions before next month's general election in the UK.
The foreign secretary was asked by Britain's longest-serving MP, Tam Dalyell, before his retirement after 42 years as an MP, if there were any difference with France 'over attitudes to Iran that they are more favorable in having more positive relations than we are'. "It is a disappointment for some in Iran and, if I may say, for some in the US as well is that the United Kingdom, France and Germany have kept together very clearly on this," Straw said.
He said that the joint negotiations on Iran's nuclear program were 'tough' but believed that 'they will produce an acceptable solution'.
"Iran is not the easiest country with which to negotiate but it has made progress. It has suspended its reprocessing and uranium enrichment activities," the foreign secretary said.
He emphasized that this was 'of very great importance in order to ensure, as provided by the Paris agreement, that there are objective guarantees Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program'.
"Although I am quite clear that negotiations will continue to be difficult, I look forward to their satisfactory conclusion," he told the MPs.
During questions, Straw rejected comparisons with the failure of intelligence with regard to Iraq's claimed weapons programs, saying the UK government 'have made no published assessment based on intelligence on Iran and have no plans to do so'.
The foreign secretary also went further than Prime Minister Tony Blair in ruling out the possibility of using military action against force against Iran.
"I have made clear beyond peradventure that there are no circumstances which we can perceive that military action against Iran will be justified. I don't think I can be clearer than that," he said when asked by Dalyell whether he stood by his commitment.
Straw also reiterated his approval of the about-turn by the US towards the EU diplomatic approach to resolving concerns about Iran's nuclear program.
"These are a product of the negotiations. The US moved from a position of detachment to active support," he said, admitting that for the first time 'some of the things we want to give the Iranians we can only give them if the US does as well'.
"That is what we have now got with the US very commendably agreeing not to block Iran's application for membership of the World Trade Organization and also provide Iran with much needed aircraft spares," the British foreign secretary said.
He accredited the changed policy to the 'very active discussions' on between himself and his French and German counterparts and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, which he said were held 'in private' on March 1.
"It was those discussions which lead, I believe to the movement by the US," Straw told his parliamentary colleagues.
In answer to a call by the Conservative's shadow foreign secretary Graham Bradley, he rejected suggestions of setting a deadline for the EU talks with Iran.
"We have no specific time scale. You can't set a specific time scale. I hope the moment does not arrive but, if and when it does, we shall all be clear it is there," the foreign secretary said.
HC/2322/1432
::IRNA No.061 05/04/2005 18:16 --End
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
