Straw: UK adopting `twin-track` approach to Iran, Libya
IRNA
London, Dec 20, IRNA -- The British government is adopting a similar approach of "patience" and "diplomacy" to bring both Libya and Iran into the international community, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Saturday. It was a "twin-track" approach that was different to the former Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, who was a direct threat to other countries in the Middle East, Straw said during an interview with BBC`s radio Five Live station. The Foreign Secretary was responding to Friday`s announcement by Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush that an agreement had been reached with Libya to scrap the country`s programs to develop weapons of mass destruction. Blair said the deal shows "problems of proliferation can, with good will, be tackled through discussion and engagement, to be followed up by the responsible international agencies. It demonstrates that countries can abandon programs voluntarily and peacefully." Straw insisted that "at no stage" in the nine months of negotiations were there any threat of military action being used against Libya and said it "proves negotiations can work." In the twin-track approach, he suggested that a "different method" had been used with Iran compared with the "secrecy" of the talks with Libya. The "painstaking" diplomacy was "more in public" and led to his visit with his German and French counterparts to Tehran negotiate an agreement that was endorsed by the International Atomic Energy Agency that was now being implemented, the British Foreign Secretary said. He described recent events as an "historic week towards a better world," with the capture of Saddam, Iran signing the additional protocol of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the agreement reached by Libya. HC/216 End
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