Mysterious Diplomatic Spectre Haunts Reuterville
"US wants Iran referred to UN after report-diplomat"
This tortured headline caught my attention because it took me a moment to decipher it, kind of like those personal license tags that take a little imagination to figure out. I clicked through after catching its meaning to see what the hubbub was about. Turns out it's just another Reuters attempt to portray America as the big bad wolf compared to the cuddly Europeans.
The news is that Iran has rejected the three-country European negotiating team's requests to stop its nuclear development program and is now about to pay the price unless it changes its ways. Reuters attempts in its non-story/unintelligible headline to absolve the EU3 of diplomatic responsibility. Here's the scary quote from the "senior U.S. diplomat":
"Unless Iran stops its conversion, cooperates with the IAEA and returns to the negotiating table, we strongly agree with the EU3 that the (IAEA) board should report this matter to the U.N. Security Council," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity
So, let me get this straight: the EU3 says that the IAEA board should report the matter to the UN Security Council, and on background (because the US is not directly involved in the negotiations) the US agrees. The headline more appropriately could have read-and this really is news- "US Agrees With EU3: Iran Should be Reported to UN Security Council," or some truncated version of that.
There's also the matter of a qualifying 'unless' attached to the beginning of that un-sourced 'diplomatic' quote. The headline suggests that the US wants Iran punished 'now,' where the quote actually suggests a time in the future- if Iran does not "return[s] to the negotiating table."
So why does Reuters do this? It's certainly not news. There is no doubt that the US wants Iran referred to the Security Council for sanctions. Solely as a matter of diplomatic necessity with 'Europe' was the whole EU3 negotiating thing created in the first place. In other words, we were being polite-or-you might say, diplomatic.
By injecting the US into the mix at this point Reuters appears to show a desire to permanently derail the now stalled process, and blame the Americans lack of diplomatic skills for it. Without the imaginary Americans involved the 'real' story would spotlight a high profile EU diplomatic failure. The 'story' only makes sense if this is their attempt to save face for the Eurocrats. It won't work.
Full article under extended entry here.
US wants Iran referred to UN after report-diplomat
03 Sep 2005 13:47:38 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Francois Murphy
VIENNA, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The United States wants Iran to be reported to the U.N. Security Council, where it could face sanctions, after a U.N. nuclear watchdog report confirmed Tehran had resumed sensitive atomic work, a senior U.S. diplomat said.
The report by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei, circulated to diplomats on Friday, said after a 2-1/2-year probe, the agency was still not able to say Iran did not have secret nuclear materials or activities.
It also said Tehran had resumed uranium conversion, one of several activities suspended under a deal with France, Britain and Germany. The so-called EU3 headed talks with Iran to try to persuade it to abandon technology that could be used to make bombs in exchange for political and economic incentives.
"Unless Iran stops its conversion, cooperates with the IAEA and returns to the negotiating table, we strongly agree with the EU3 that the (IAEA) board should report this matter to the U.N. Security Council," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity, confirming Washington's position.
Iran, which denies wanting nuclear weapons as suspected by Washington and the European Union, says it has answered almost all of the IAEA's questions and shown its atomic ambitions are limited to harnessing nuclear power to generate electricity.
But it angered the EU by resuming uranium conversion last month at a plant in Isfahan -- a move which brought talks between Iran and the EU close to collapse and led EU officials to threaten Security Council referral.
The IAEA board of governors unanimously called on Iran on Aug. 11 to reinstate its suspension in full and asked ElBaradei to report on Iran's compliance by Sept. 3. The board meets again on Sept. 19 to discuss how to respond to the report.
"In general, the report confirms our concern that Iran is proceeding with a nuclear weapons programme," the senior U.S. diplomat said. "The international community needs to put further pressure on Iran to force it back to the negotiating table."
