Reuters: The international community cannot stand back and watch Iran damage the United Nations with its refusal to heed calls to suspend enrichment, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday. BERLIN, Sept 6 (Reuters) – The international community cannot stand back and watch Iran damage the United Nations with its refusal to heed calls to suspend enrichment, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.
Merkel said that Iran’s response to an offer of incentives and refusal to freeze nuclear enrichment work as demanded by the U.N. Security Council was unacceptable.
“Iran’s response is not satisfactory. We won’t close the door to negotiations but we the international community won’t stand by and watch as Iran harms the rules of the U.N. nuclear authorities,” Merkel told German lawmakers in a speech.
However, she reiterated that military action against the Islamic Republic was not an option.
“There is no military option,” Merkel said.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Monday that Berlin and its allies would refer Tehran’s nuclear dossier back to the Security Council if European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana could not persuade Tehran to change its behaviour when he meets Tehran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.
However, there was uncertainty on Wednesday over whether that meeting would take place as the two sides were still wrangling over a date and venue.
On Thursday, senior officials from the six countries that made the June incentives offer to Iran — Germany, the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia — are due to meet in Berlin to discuss Tehran’s refusal to suspend nuclear fuel work and the possibility of imposing sanctions on Iran.
