No Discussion of Iran Sanctions Under Way: Germany
By REUTERS Filed at 9:11 a.m. ET
...From this weekend on , so far, it seems to be the 'week' where almost 'everyone' is backing off Iran .. I wonder ..?..
BERLIN (Reuters) - World powers due to meet in Berlin this week to discuss Iran's nuclear program are not talking of sanctions or any ``military option,'' Germany's top arms control official said on Tuesday.
``Contrary to what has been said, there is no military option on the table. There is no discussion of sanctions,'' Ambassador Friedrich Groening, head of arms control and disarmament at the German Foreign Ministry, told a conference on the Middle East.
``It is still diplomacy and it is not -- I repeat -- talking about sanctions,'' he said, referring to Western concerns about Iran's nuclear program.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has sent Iran's nuclear dossier to the U.N. Security Council, which can impose sanctions, due to fears that Tehran is secretly seeking atomic bombs. Iran says it aims only to generate electricity.
On Thursday, the foreign ministers of Germany and the five permanent council members -- France, Britain, United States, Russia and China -- are due to meet in Berlin to try to break a deadlock over a draft council statement calling on Iran to freeze its recently revived uranium enrichment program.
Russia and China oppose any discussion of sanctions and want the issue handed back to the IAEA. Germany has said repeatedly that an embargo on the Islamic Republic cannot be ruled out if it does not suspend its enrichment activities.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he hoped for an agreement in Berlin and ruled out military action against Iran.
``As to the possibility of this leading to another Iraq, it won't,'' he told reporters in London.
``I have made clear often enough that I don't regard military action as appropriate or indeed conceivable. Nor do I believe there would be any international consensus on that and I think Russia and China are well reassured on that,'' Straw said.
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