EU could compromise with Iran: Germany

[cal04]

Germany signaled on Tuesday the European Union might be willing to compromise with Iran about its nuclear enrichment program, the focus of a crisis meeting of six world powers in Berlin on Thursday. But Berlin conditioned any possible compromise on Iran's willingness to suspend all activities related to uranium enrichment for a certain period.

Tehran, which says it only seeks nuclear-generated electricity, not the capacity to produce atomic bombs as the West suspects, has so far ruled out such a suspension. Earlier this year, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) proposed allowing Iran to keep a limited program of uranium enrichment after halting such work for several years and accepting intrusive U.N. inspections.

Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler said the idea could be considered by EU negotiators Germany, France and Britain, but it would need solid backing from the Security Council, which is now trying to agree on how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions. "I was very impressed by the ICG proposals. I think we can consider these proposals but only on the basis that we have a united and common position in the Security Council," Erler said at a conference on Iran and the Middle East.

The United States insists Iran should never enrich uranium while the EU has said it may -- in the interests of compromise -- be willing to permit some enrichment after about a decade. Within the EU, Germany -- one of the biggest exporters to Iran -- is considered to be more in favor of an earlier resumption of enrichment than other states, EU diplomats say. Erler said Iran, not the West, should take the first step toward a compromise by restoring a moratorium on uranium enrichment it ended in January. Tehran has so far refused.

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=11672800&src=rss/worldNews

[villager]

1. Bush just gets more and more "aloner," doesn't he?

n/t

[Minnesota Libra]

2. The world is telling Bush "if you won't, we will" - I just hope whoever..

.....gets in the WH next can undo all the harm the boy kind and his evil handler has done.

I hope I'm wrong when I say I think this country will be paying for the screw up of the past six years well into the next century. OMG, I hope I'm wrong.