Downing Street Says

» Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Iran

Asked if the British Government was open to President Putin’s compromise idea on Iran, the PMOS said that we had said all along that our ideal out for this was a diplomatic solution. But a diplomatic solution had to mean than Iran abided by its international obligations. Therefore that was the test. If Iran wanted to come up with a solution that met that test, fine. Mr El Baradei was even stronger on this in his Newsweek interview. He had said, "I do not want the agency to be cheated; I do not want the process to be abused." That was they key test.

Would it meet his standard and meet the international communities standard. Put to the PMOS that Mr El Baradei had not been speaking about Iran specifically, the PMOS said that Mr El Baradei had addressed the question of Iran in recent days. Asked if there was any indication of increased willingness for UNSC referral from Russia and China, the PMOS said that China and Russia would speak for themselves and it was not for him to talk for them. However, the fact that the IAEA Board meeting had been brought forward by about a month spoke for itself. That showed that everyone accepted that there was now a new urgency to deal with this issue, which was a good thing. Asked if in reality much could be done, the PMOS said that the reality was that we had to persuade Iran to abide by its international obligations.

People only had to look at the Iranian President’s remarks on Israel to understand why we had to persuade them to abide by those international obligations. Put to him that they were not going to be persuaded, the PMOS said that thankfully fatalism did not characterise our approach to international affairs.

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Iran

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