Europeans Trying to Grease Wheels for U.S. Talks With Iran
Dafna Linzer
Washington Post
Sep 18, 2006
European efforts to get Iran and the United States around the same negotiating table are at an advanced yet sensitive stage, with a small number of remaining differences to be tackled this week when world leaders gather at the United Nations, according to several American, Iranian and European officials involved.
President Bush plans to make Iran a centerpiece of his speech Tuesday before the U.N. General Assembly, explaining to the annual meeting of presidents and prime ministers why he regards the Tehran government as a grave threat yet is willing to support negotiations to ease those concerns.
For four years, Bush has sought, without success, to roll back an Iranian nuclear energy program that perhaps could be diverted for bombmaking. While many of his allies share suspicions of a secret Iranian effort, they have also been wary of supporting a U.S. president who has invaded two countries in the past five years and who has said that "all options are on the table" for Iran.
At last year's U.N. gathering, Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spent several days trying to persuade key allies to move the Iran issue into the U.N. Security Council, where the United States has more leverage to press for sanctions. They were unsuccessful then, but six months later, after additional diplomacy and poor cooperation from Iran, the issue was put on the council's agenda. Now, the president and his top diplomat will meet with allies again -- this time to discuss prospects for talks as well as options if those do not materialize.
"We want this to happen, we want negotiations," a senior administration official said Sunday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. "But we're not there yet."
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