US seeks unity on Iran

By David Cronin

Date: 23/03/06

Unity between the EU and US will be crucial if a solution on Iran's nuclear programme is to be found, Washington's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency said on a visit to Brussels.

Greg Schulte said that close transatlantic co-operation over the dossier offered "the strongest hope that our efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution to the crisis can be a success".

Although the US has rejected last weekend's British proposal that the US should participate directly in nuclear talks with Iran, Schulte played down suggestions of a rift. "There is a common agreement between the US, the European Union, Russia and China that Iran needs to stop its activities," he told European Voice.

Mohammed-Reza Khatami, brother of Iran's former president and leader of the reformist Mosharekat party, has over the past week called on the country's authorities to suspend the nuclear fuel cycle work. "I do hope that this indicates a debate within Iran and among its leadership on the wisdom of its current course of action," Schulte said. "Maybe this indicates some people are having second thoughts."

Schulte accused the Iranian authorities of damaging their country's economic interest by running the risk of sanctions being imposed by the United Nations Security Council. Capital flight from Iran and decisions by Austrian and Swiss banks not to do business in the country were already having an impact on its economy, he said.

Schulte suggested that Iran should reconsider its rejection of offers by Russia and the EU3 (the UK, France and Germany) to enable the country to generate nuclear energy for civilian use without conducting its own uranium enrichment for possible military appli-cations. "A French colleague of mine has described the EU3 offer as the greatest opening to the West offered to Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution," he said.

He denied accusations that the US was displaying double standards by adopting a tough stance towards Iran, while engaging in nuclear co-operation with India and remaining silent about Israel's reported nuclear activities. "Israel has never threatened to wipe another country off the map, whereas Iran has," he said.

Like Israel, India has refused to sign the Non Proliferation Treaty. But Schulte maintained that the recent US-India deal contained safeguards that would allow the IAEA to inspect India's nuclear sites.

Comments by Greg Schulte, the United States Envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, who said that unity between the EU and US would be crucial if a solution on Iran's nuclear programme was to be found.