WORLD> Middle East
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Nations weigh new Iran sanctions
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-07 00:03 France regrets that Iran "has again chosen not to provide a clear response," Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said in Paris. The United States and others accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic energy program. Iran denies the charge, insisting its program is peaceful, but it has thus far refused to halt enriching uranium, a process that can produce the ingredients for a bomb.
"I think that the allies will have no choice but to take further measures that would be punitive, given that we don't have a decent and responsive statement from the Iranians," White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters aboard Air Force One as President George W. Bush flew from South Korea to Thailand as part of an Asian tour. She noted that "the Iranians have long stalled on responding to the allies" and said Iran's response left much to be desired. "I understand it just doen't look like it's anything worth writing home about." The incentives were presented to Iran earlier this year and reiterated on July 19, when senior diplomats from the six nations and the European Union met in person with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and set an informal two-week deadline for Iran to respond. That meeting was notable because the Bush administration broke with its long-standing policy and sent the State Department's third-ranking diplomat to the session intended to prove its seriousness about the package. Amid Wednesday's flurry of diplomatic activity, the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said one of its top officials would travel to Iran on Thursday. It was not immediately clear if the incentives package would be on deputy IAEA director general Olli Heinonen's agenda for talks with the Iranians. |