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U.S., Europe Discount New Iran Proposal

[Washington Times] Nicholas Krale - U.S. and European diplomats said they had seen no Iranian proposal and cautioned that the move might be designed to buy time and provide Russia and China with a pretext to delay new UN sanctions. Privately, U.S. and European diplomats said Tuesday that the timing of Jalili's comments seemed to follow a familiar pattern. It is "typical Iranian tactics to go to the press" before a meeting on the nuclear issue, a senior European diplomat said. On Wednesday, diplomats from the five permanent UN Security Council members - the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China - as well as Germany will meet in Frankfurt to discuss further actions if Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of UN resolutions. Suzanne Maloney, an Iran specialist at the Brookings Institution, said "everybody has been anticipating that they would" come forward with a proposal in September to deflect pressure for new sanctions. "They want to be on the offensive, not defensive, diplomatically" and give the Russians and the Chinese "a lifeline" to oppose new penalties.
2009-09-02 08:00:00
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