As envoys from Germany and the five permanent nations on the U.N. Security Council gathered in Paris yesterday for talks on Iran's nuclear program, an Iranian official renewed threats that his country would retaliate against Israel if the United States took military action against Iran. Tehran said that it is continuing its nuclear enrichment program.
U.S. officials say they are pursuing a diplomatic solution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear program, but have said repeatedly that all options, including military ones, are being considered. Iran says its nuclear program is only for producing energy, but the United States and its European allies contend that Iran is preparing to build weapons.
Officials from the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia as well as Germany scheduled talks in Paris on creating a common platform to deal with the issue. The talks follow a report last week by the International Atomic Energy Agency that said Iran has drastically curtailed cooperation with nuclear inspectors over the past month as it has sped forward with nuclear enrichment.
R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, said at a briefing that the United States is not taking any options off the table. "We have not lost hope in diplomacy," he said, but "we are not going to accept a nuclear weapons future" for Iran.
Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, arrives in Washington today for talks with President Bush in the role of mediator between the United States and Russia over how to respond to Iran's nuclear ambitions. She is expected to tell Bush that the international community must continue "step by step" in trying to find a diplomatic solution.
"Military options are not on the table," said a German official who requested anonymity. He said the world community had worked together to isolate Tehran.
"It is a step-by-step process," he said. "It is important to make Iran aware that it is getting itself into a position of isolation."
Iranian officials have said that any military strike against their country would be met by a severe response that could ignite a broader regional conflict.
Iran asked the United Nations on Monday to take a stand against American threats that it said included nuclear strikes and that were "in total contempt of international law."
