Bush Softens Stance on Iran
WASHINGTON — In a concession to European allies negotiating with Iran on nuclear issues, President Bush agreed Friday to drop U.S. objections to Iranian membership in the World Trade Organization and to allow sale of civilian aircraft parts to Iran.
In return, France, Germany and Britain agreed to support taking Iran to the United Nations Security Council if it breaks its promise to suspend uranium enrichment, which can provide fuel for a nuclear weapon, while talks are in progress. The three countries have offered the Iranian leadership in Tehran, the capital, economic and political incentives to abandon any ambitions to acquire nuclear weapons.
Bush's decision, which was denounced by neoconservatives but hailed by some foreign policy experts, marked a major tactical shift for an administration that has opposed offering incentives to Iran to curtail its nuclear activities. It has argued that to do so would reward bad behavior.
During Bush's trip to Europe last month, the French and German leaders asked him to reconsider his position, arguing that the negotiations were sure to fail unless the United States joined Europe in a common bargaining position.
Bush's decision to back the Europeans does not mean that Washington believes a solution is at hand, U.S. officials said. They remain concerned that Iran intends to build a nuclear weapon under the guise of what Tehran insists is a purely peaceful nuclear power program -- but say they must give diplomacy a chance.
"I look forward to working with our European friends to make it abundantly clear to the Iranian regime that the free world will not tolerate them having a nuclear weapon," Bush told an audience in Shreveport, La., where he was campaigning Friday for Social Security revisions.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice emphasized that the United States was not entering negotiations with Tehran, but was supporting the European effort to offer Iran incentives to abandon programs that would allow it to build a nuclear weapon.
"The Europeans have a strategy." Rice said. "And we're supporting that diplomacy. But this is most assuredly giving the Europeans a stronger hand, not rewarding the Iranians."
But Michael Rubin, a former U.S. advisor in Iraq now at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said the administration was in fact rewarding bad behavior.
