U.K.’s Hague questioned by lawmaker to clarify policy on Iran

Bloomberg: U.K. lawmaker Richard Ottaway who chairs Parliament’s cross-party Foreign Affairs Committee wrote to Foreign Secretary William Hague asking him to clarify whether he agrees with U.S. policy to “do whatever is necessary” to prevent Iran from accessing nuclear weapons. Bloomberg

By Kitty Donaldson

U.K. lawmaker Richard Ottaway who chairs Parliament’s cross-party Foreign Affairs Committee wrote to Foreign Secretary William Hague asking him to clarify whether he agrees with U.S. policy to “do whatever is necessary” to prevent Iran from accessing nuclear weapons.

The letter says the U.K. should establish whether Iran has the capacity or intention to weaponize as it will be a key concern in determining what further action to take, and asks the foreign secretary to set out the government’s view on when Iran would have “crossed the line.”

There is “a growing consensus that 2013 will be the year in which the current deadlock over Iran’s program will, one way or another, be broken,” Ottaway wrote, according to the letter released by his committee today.

It also asks Hague to clarify if there has been a “shift” in the negotiating positions of either Iran or the E3+3 group of nations since a deadlock in talks last year. That grouping refers to the U.K., France and Germany in Europe alongside the U.S., Russia and China.

The Foreign Office did not immediately have a response to the letter when contacted by phone today.