US-EU rift surfaces over Iran's nuclear programme

A US-European rift was surfacing over how harshly to deal with Iran and its suspect nuclear program, with the Europeans ignoring American suggestions and circulating their own recommendations to other delegates at a key meeting of the UN atomic agency.

Diplomats at a board of governors meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency had suggested earlier that America and the European Union were making progress in drafting common language for a resolution that would set a deadline for Iran to meet demands designed to dispel fears it was trying to make nuclear arms.

But the latest draft being circulated informally yesterday for reaction from other delegates, nearly mirrored the one that France, Britain and Germany came up with on Friday – a text that American officials had said was not tough enough.

The American suggestions were also made available yesterday. They demanded that Iran grant agency inspectors ”complete, immediate and unrestricted access” provide ”full information” about past illegal nuclear activities suspend “immediately and fully” uranium enrichment and related activities and meet all agency demands to ”resolve all outstanding issues” nurturing suspicions of a possible weapons program.

The Americans asked that the draft include an October 31 deadline. The EU text remained more vague on both demands and a time frame, asking only that IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei submit a comprehensive report before November for evaluation by the board.

The meeting has become the main battleground between Iran and the US, which wants to take Iran before the UN Security Council for alleged violations of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

A US official who demanded anonymity denied the developments were a blow to Washington.

“Not everybody is happy but not everybody is going to be happy” with the US insistence on a harsh line on Iran, he said. “I think things are moving in our direction.”

ElBaradei shrugged off the idea of a deadline.

“We cannot just say there is a magic date” for an end to his agency’s Iran probe, ElBaradei said. He also repeated that his investigation has not established whether Iran is trying to make nuclear arms – as Washington asserts.

“We haven’t seen any concrete proof that there is a weapons program,” he told reporters on the second day of the board meeting. “Can we say everything is peaceful? Obviously we are not at that stage.”

Revelations of the rift were expected to prove embarrassing to the Americans. They had expressed confidence that they would be able to bring the Europeans close to their stance and had flown in a team close to US Under-secretary of State John Bolton for the board meeting, effectively sidelining the Vienna-based US mission that normally is responsible for such conferences.