Saturday, April 29, 2006

EU and US strike different tones on Iran

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States and the
European Union struck different tones on Saturday on how to respond to
Iran's nuclear defiance while insisting they were in full agreement.

Speaking at a transatlantic conference, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said no one was considering military action over Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment and Europe did not want to join a "coalition of the willing" against Iran.

Influential U.S. Senator John McCain told the Brussels Forum in a speech on Friday night: "There is only one thing worse than military action, and that is a nuclear-armed Iran."

He said the United States would not stand by and let Iran wipe out
Israel, as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinjenad had called for.

The Islamic republic, a major oil and gas producer, denies it aims to build a bomb and says its programme is purely for civilian energy purposes.

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