BERLIN/TEHRAN, 23 January 2005 — The European Union yesterday played down the threat of a US strike on Iran, saying that a diplomatic solution to Tehran’s nuclear ambitions would ultimately be found. EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told a German newspaper that ultimately the EU and the United States wanted the same outcome to discussions with Iran.
“Negotiations will be difficult, but I firmly believe that diplomatic efforts will be successful,” Ferrero-Waldner was quoted as saying in the Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag. “I base this on the fact that no one could underestimate the consequences of a military strike - not only on the region but also on relations between the Islamic world and the West,” she said.
On Monday, US President George W. Bush said he could not rule out using force if Tehran failed to rein in its nuclear plans, which he says is a cover for the production of a nuclear bomb. “I am not sure that President Bush made a direct threat,” the commissioner said, adding: “Vice President (Dick) Cheney said that the diplomatic solution would be the best solution.”
Cheney said Thursday that Iran was “right at the top of the list” of global trouble spots. He also said Iran was “a noted sponsor of terror”. But Ferrero-Waldner said, “The European Union and the United States have the same aim: to prevent Iran from getting hold of a nuclear weapon, and they both want a peaceful solution.” Ferrero-Waldner told the newspaper that the only difference between Brussels and Washington was in establishing priorities, with the Europeans preferring to give encouragement and to support moderates in Iran and the United States opting for a tougher approach.
In another development, a ban on women standing in Iranian presidential elections in June remains in force, a constitutional watchdog body said yesterday, rejecting earlier reports in the official media that the ban had been lifted. Guardians Council spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said there had been no change in the watchdog’s interpretation of a key word in the Islamic republic’s constitution that has long been taken as referring to men only.
“My comments regarding the Guardians Council and the word rejal have not changed and there is nothing new,” Elham told the official IRNA news agency. As late as last evening, Iranian state television’s English-language service had been reporting that the Guardians had decided to lift the ban.
The disputed word, which comes from Arabic, could also be interpreted as meaning “personalities” in Persian and this is the translation used in some English translations of the constitution. “Women who have the necessary qualifications have the right to run in the presidential elections,” Elham was earlier quoted as saying on the official IRNA news agency. The remarks, made in the western city of Khorramabad, made a sharp departure from the council’s previous insistence on the literal, grammatically masculine, reading of the word “rejal”.
