EU ENGAGES IRAN AS CRACKDOWN CONTINUE ON DISSIDENTS
By an IPS Correspondent
BRUSSELS 17 Dec. (IPS) As the European Union continued Tuesday its so-called "critical talks" with the Islamic Republic of Iran concentrating on human rights issues, a senior American diplomat in Brussels warned that the talks "risk bolstering hard line elements in the Islamic regime".
"It's not so much a conflict between US and EU policy with respect to Iran so much as the situation in Iran is delicate and you don't want to endorse things that we all agree are inconsistent with our values in both the United States and Europe", the diplomat said, quoted by the French news agency AFP.
"What's troubling is that you wouldn't want the EU's position to appear to be an embrace of the Iranian leadership when the moves that they're making are repressive", he added, as Hojjatoleslam Hasan Rohani, the influential Secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security announced that the EU has agreed not to press a UN resolution condemning Iran's human-rights record.
While the United States has labelled Iran as an "evil state", alongside with Communist North Korea and Iraq and has "abandoned" the powerless Khatami, the continue pursuing a policy of "actively engaging" Iran in a bid to boost the fortunes of the embattled reformists.
But the 15 members European Union defended the continuation of its dialogue with Iran, describing it as a "crucial way" of supporting the reformist administration of President Mohammad Khatami against religious hardliners who are cracking down against student protestors, ignoring the fact that the students, during their month-long protest movement, have openly dissociated themselves with both Khatami and the reformists who backs him.
"We are now launching a more structured human-rights dialogue where for the first time the Iranians are engaging actively in a forum with the West to discuss issues associated with human rights. That in itself is an important step forward", EU’s spokeswoman Emma Udwin observed.
The tow side’s dialogue on human rights, part of discussions about signing a Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), started Monday in Tehran, with the EU negotiators stressing that no agreement could be expected without Tehran showing respect for human rights, dropping support for Middle East and Palestinian extremists opposed tom peace with Israel and abandoning plans for producing nuclear weapons.
The last round of the talks began as the ruling conservatives continued a new wave of crackdown on the Iranian students who seek radical changes in the present Iranian Constitution and Washington unveiled satellite pictures of new nuclear-related plants Iran had built secretly, without informing the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran refused visas to observers from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The decision dismayed some EU officials, admitting that there are differences within the EU over how to respond to developments, with some members including Germany and Spain, arguing that to isolate the Islamic republic would be counter-productive. ENDS EU IRAN HR TAKS 171202