Iran has defied the EU-3 yet again, concluding the latest round of talks without an agreement to end uranium enrichment and stiffarming the international community:

Talks between Iran and three European Union heavyweights ended on Saturday without an agreement on Tehran's nuclear program, a source close to the negotiations said.

Iran was seeking a compromise in the talks with France, Germany and Britain to avoid a dispute over its nuclear program being referred to the United Nations Security Council and avert the risk of sanctions.

The EU trio wants Iran to stop enriching uranium.

"At the end of difficult talks, the two parties made considerable progress toward a provisional agreement on a common approach on these issues," the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement. But a source close to the negotiations said: "Nothing is settled ... The discussions were difficult, very difficult. The Iranians struggled hard."

"Everyone has to touch base now," the source added after the second day of talks. "That's the end of this meeting ... There is no (further) meeting planned."

The question that the EU-3 need to answer is how much longer will they allow the Iranians to stall before escalating the issue to the Security Council? Negotiations are not a neutral activity; while they're busy talking, the Iranians keep working hard to develop their nuclear-enrichment program. It's becoming painfully obvious that the laughable deterrent value of France and Germany has outweighed the credibility of the British.

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. . . leaving the task of preventing Iran from going nuclear to feckless negotiations with the mullahs that have been subcontracted to the Europeans constitutes criminal neglect on the part of the Administration. Maybe Bush will use his mandate to quas... [Read More]

Tracked on November 7, 2004 12:37 PM