AFP: The international community must preserve the “possibility for dialogue” with Iran over its contested nuclear program, the foreign ministers of France and Germany agreed in a meeting here Monday. PARIS, Aug 28, 2006 (AFP) – The international community must preserve the “possibility for dialogue” with Iran over its contested nuclear program, the foreign ministers of France and Germany agreed in a meeting here Monday.
Philippe Douste-Blazy and Frank-Walter Steinmeier “feel it is necessary to allow for the possibility of dialogue with the Iranians”, the French minister’s office said.
“They agreed to stress the need to be firm but also the need for the international community to be united,” it said.
French President Jacques Chirac, in a foreign policy speech given Monday, also urged Iran to build the “conditions for trust” with the West, which suspects its civilian nuclear energy drive is a cover for developing atomic weapons.
“I exhort Tehran once more to take the necessary steps in order to create the conditions for trust,” Chirac said. “There is always room for dialogue.”
France and Germany are among the six world powers which have offered a package of economic and security incentives to Iran in return for its agreement to stop sensitive nuclear work.
The UN Security Council has given Iran an August 31 deadline to suspend all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities, and an impasse looms with Iran insisting it has no intention of abandoning such work.
