Pressure To Isolate Iran Gathers Steam
President's most recent anti-Semitic remarks came ahead of new talks with EU nations aimed at halting Tehran's nuclear activities.
By John Daniszewski, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times
December 16, 2005
LONDON — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's remarks this week calling the massacre of Jews during World War II a myth is increasing pressure to isolate his nation just days ahead of new talks on Iran's nuclear ambitions, governments and commentators said Thursday.
A British official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the comments by the president were particularly unhelpful as the West searches for signs of compromise from Iran in the showdown over its nuclear program.
In Brussels, on the eve of a European Union summit, a draft resolution was circulating among foreign ministers Thursday that tells Iran, "The window of opportunity will not remain open forever," Reuters reported.
Next week, talks are planned in Vienna between Iran and France, Germany and Britain, the so-called EU-3 countries, which have taken the lead in negotiations over the nuclear program.
Iran is developing a capability it says will be used for the peaceful purpose of generating electricity. Western officials fear the country is bent on acquiring nuclear weapons.
Since Ahmadinejad's election in June, Iran has defied the international community by beginning preliminary efforts to process yellowcake uranium. So far it has not taken the next step of enriching the material, which could be used in either an energy or arms program. Iranian officials insist they have the right to carry out the work.
If a compromise again proves elusive at next week's meeting over demands that Iran abandon enrichment plans, an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency could be called to refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council, the British official said. At the council, the international community could formally sanction Iran and isolate it diplomatically.
With negotiations at a near-impasse after more than a year and patience wearing thin in Europe and the United States, Ahmadinejad's latest comments denying the Holocaust and calling for the state of Israel to be moved out of the Middle East were met with disbelief and indignation.
"Now it's not paranoid to worry about a president with annihilationist dreams — it's smart," British commentator Jonathan Freedland wrote in the Guardian.
The words "outrageous" and "unacceptable" appeared often in the French press.
"When the leader of a country of 66 million people, a regional power, who dreams of nuclear power, breaks international law, denies history and calls for the destruction of a country and deportation of its population, it is no longer possible to [have] dialogue and cooperate," wrote Patrick Sabatier in Liberation, a left-leaning French daily.
"What are Europeans, and France most of all, waiting for before they at least freeze their diplomatic relations with Tehran?" he asked.
Berlin's official statements toward Ahmadinejad were particularly harsh. Germany is sensitive to Holocaust-related issues, and denying that the mass murder of Jews occurred during World War II is a criminal offense there.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the government "condemns the repeated remarks by the Iranian president in the sharpest form. I cannot deny that this will worsen bilateral relations and also affect the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program," he said.
However, several analysts said that reaching a successful conclusion to the nuclear talks was so important to EU members that they may choose not to focus on Ahmadinejad's remarks for now.
"You have to send the signal that this is intolerable and counterproductive to Iranian international relations," said Rosemary Hollis of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. But she added, "If you give up on diplomacy, you get into gesture politics, which won't solve anything."
Iran's confidence is on the rise, she said, in part because the nation sees that the United States is bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some analysts pointed out that Ahmadinejad's power is limited and his views don't reflect the positions of the Iranian government as a whole.
Western officials have long been accustomed to a degree of fractiousness in Iran's government, where power is shared among the president, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the clerical and judicial Guardian Council.
Johannes Reissner, an analyst with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said the Iranian president's remarks would strain the atmosphere around the nuclear talks but probably not stop them, because Ahmadinejad is not a negotiator or key figure in Iran's foreign policy.
"It is a problem, but to what degree is difficult to judge," Reissner said.
"The awful situation facing the Europeans is that this kind of attack is unacceptable for Israel. But the question is that if you want to change the policies of another country such as Iran, you have to keep contact.
"In my view," he added, "Ahmadinejad's strategy is to use these kinds of remarks in order to marginalize his domestic opponents. He's attempting to block policies within his country from rivals within the conservative camp."
Jean-Pierre Perrin, writing in Liberation, suggested that Ahmadinejad was deliberately trying to undermine any diplomatic solution on the nuclear question.
"Beyond the anti-Semitic speech of the president, there is a real strategy of confrontation with the West," Perrin said.
"A few days before the negotiations start again between Iran and three European countries to guarantee that the Iranian nuclear program will not end up on the production of an atomic weapon, he assures that his country will never give in to Western pressure," Perrin wrote. That is "a method to undermine the diplomatic efforts to achieve an acceptable compromise between Iran and the EU."
By John Daniszewski, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times
December 16, 2005
LONDON — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's remarks this week calling the massacre of Jews during World War II a myth is increasing pressure to isolate his nation just days ahead of new talks on Iran's nuclear ambitions, governments and commentators said Thursday.
A British official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the comments by the president were particularly unhelpful as the West searches for signs of compromise from Iran in the showdown over its nuclear program.
In Brussels, on the eve of a European Union summit, a draft resolution was circulating among foreign ministers Thursday that tells Iran, "The window of opportunity will not remain open forever," Reuters reported.
Next week, talks are planned in Vienna between Iran and France, Germany and Britain, the so-called EU-3 countries, which have taken the lead in negotiations over the nuclear program.
Iran is developing a capability it says will be used for the peaceful purpose of generating electricity. Western officials fear the country is bent on acquiring nuclear weapons.
Since Ahmadinejad's election in June, Iran has defied the international community by beginning preliminary efforts to process yellowcake uranium. So far it has not taken the next step of enriching the material, which could be used in either an energy or arms program. Iranian officials insist they have the right to carry out the work.
If a compromise again proves elusive at next week's meeting over demands that Iran abandon enrichment plans, an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency could be called to refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council, the British official said. At the council, the international community could formally sanction Iran and isolate it diplomatically.
With negotiations at a near-impasse after more than a year and patience wearing thin in Europe and the United States, Ahmadinejad's latest comments denying the Holocaust and calling for the state of Israel to be moved out of the Middle East were met with disbelief and indignation.
"Now it's not paranoid to worry about a president with annihilationist dreams — it's smart," British commentator Jonathan Freedland wrote in the Guardian.
The words "outrageous" and "unacceptable" appeared often in the French press.
"When the leader of a country of 66 million people, a regional power, who dreams of nuclear power, breaks international law, denies history and calls for the destruction of a country and deportation of its population, it is no longer possible to [have] dialogue and cooperate," wrote Patrick Sabatier in Liberation, a left-leaning French daily.
"What are Europeans, and France most of all, waiting for before they at least freeze their diplomatic relations with Tehran?" he asked.
Berlin's official statements toward Ahmadinejad were particularly harsh. Germany is sensitive to Holocaust-related issues, and denying that the mass murder of Jews occurred during World War II is a criminal offense there.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the government "condemns the repeated remarks by the Iranian president in the sharpest form. I cannot deny that this will worsen bilateral relations and also affect the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program," he said.
However, several analysts said that reaching a successful conclusion to the nuclear talks was so important to EU members that they may choose not to focus on Ahmadinejad's remarks for now.
"You have to send the signal that this is intolerable and counterproductive to Iranian international relations," said Rosemary Hollis of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. But she added, "If you give up on diplomacy, you get into gesture politics, which won't solve anything."
Iran's confidence is on the rise, she said, in part because the nation sees that the United States is bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some analysts pointed out that Ahmadinejad's power is limited and his views don't reflect the positions of the Iranian government as a whole.
Western officials have long been accustomed to a degree of fractiousness in Iran's government, where power is shared among the president, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the clerical and judicial Guardian Council.
Johannes Reissner, an analyst with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said the Iranian president's remarks would strain the atmosphere around the nuclear talks but probably not stop them, because Ahmadinejad is not a negotiator or key figure in Iran's foreign policy.
"It is a problem, but to what degree is difficult to judge," Reissner said.
"The awful situation facing the Europeans is that this kind of attack is unacceptable for Israel. But the question is that if you want to change the policies of another country such as Iran, you have to keep contact.
"In my view," he added, "Ahmadinejad's strategy is to use these kinds of remarks in order to marginalize his domestic opponents. He's attempting to block policies within his country from rivals within the conservative camp."
Jean-Pierre Perrin, writing in Liberation, suggested that Ahmadinejad was deliberately trying to undermine any diplomatic solution on the nuclear question.
"Beyond the anti-Semitic speech of the president, there is a real strategy of confrontation with the West," Perrin said.
"A few days before the negotiations start again between Iran and three European countries to guarantee that the Iranian nuclear program will not end up on the production of an atomic weapon, he assures that his country will never give in to Western pressure," Perrin wrote. That is "a method to undermine the diplomatic efforts to achieve an acceptable compromise between Iran and the EU."
posted by Hanan Elbadry at 2:04 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home