KEY POINTS:
Germany and France yesterday said Iran's nuclear programme was still a threat and the search for more United Nations sanctions should go on despite a United States intelligence report saying that Tehran was no longer trying to build an atomic bomb.
European Union and Nato foreign ministers, meeting for separate talks in Brussels, agreed there was no reason to change their position of threatening sanctions against Iran, Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister Karel de Gucht said.
Speaking at a joint news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the existing dual track policy of preparing sanctions against Tehran while leaving the door open to negotiations should go on.
"I think that we are in a process and that Iran still poses a threat," Merkel said, adding that talks between EU mediator Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator should continue.
Sarkozy fully agreed with Merkel, adding: "What has made Iran move until now is sanctions and firmness."
The US National Intelligence Estimate published this week said Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons programme four years ago. It said Iran was continuing to develop the technical means that could be applied to producing weapons.
The report appears likely to increase resistance from Russia and China to US demands for a third round of UN sanctions against Iran.
Russia has said the report is a factor that will be taken into account in negotiations over sanctions, and the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, said the NIE report "somewhat vindicated" Iran.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Brussels for meetings with Nato ministers, urged Russia to help maintain pressure on Iran.
De Gucht said Iran's work on uranium enrichment made no sense unless it was part of a plan to produce nuclear weapons. He said it did not mean Iran had decided to make nuclear arms, but once it had fissile material, it could be done in a reasonable amount of time.
Because of international concerns, the UN Security Council has imposed two rounds of sanctions against Tehran and demanded that it halt uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for power plants or, potentially, atom bombs.
Iran says it only wants to generate electricity and has a national right to uranium enrichment.
US deputy director of National Intelligence Donald Kerr told Congress yesterday that Iran retained capabilities despite having frozen weapons development in 2003, and there was reason to believe Iran still wanted an ability to make nuclear weapons.
The White House admitted on Thursday that President George W. Bush was told in August that Iran may have halted its nuclear weapons programme.
- Reuters
