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Britain seeks ultimatum to Iran
18/06/2003 07:55 - (SA)
London - Britain is pressing Europe to give Iran a two-month ultimatum to comply with international demands to halt its nuclear programme and to cut off its alleged support of terrorists, a British daily said on Wednesday.
The sanction from Europe if Tehran does not respond positively would be the loss of a valuable trade deal with the European Union, said the Daily Telegraph.
The move is an attempt by Britain to avoid a repetition of the rift between Europe and the United States about war in Iraq, said the rightwing paper.
A British foreign office message to diplomatic posts and some government departments expressed concern that "the United States is increasingly impatient and favours a more confrontational approach, preferably isolation, but, failing all else, conceivably military (action)," said the newspaper.
Washington claims Iran is using its nuclear programme as a pretext to acquire nuclear weapons.
"We do not think that isolation will work," the foreign office message said, according to the Telegraph.
Ministers choose a middle course
"But, if the US presses this hard, we risk an EU/US clash on Iran, placing us in the invidious position of having to choose sides," said the message, which was sent last week.
Out of six repsonses to the message, ranging from no change to reluctantly joining the US in isolating Iran, ministers chose a middle course: "ratcheting up EU pressure on Iran".
Referring to the proposed ultimatum, the message said: "A sharp shock now, reasonably early, might act as a salutary warning to the Iranians that, as we must listen to them, they must take our concerns seriously."
So far, Tehran has held fast to its refusal to sign a new protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that would allow short-notice inspections of suspect facilities, rather than the pre-arranged visits to declared sites.
- AFX
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