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Coaxing Iran
Tuesday, June 18, 2002
From The Economist Global Agenda

Patten gives Iran a sporting chance.
Image Credit: European Press-Photo Agency (EPA).

The nightmare that terrorists as well as hostile governments might get their hands on weapons of mass destruction also makes America deeply suspicious of Iran’s Russian-assisted nuclear-power programme. So where Europeans have argued for dealing with Iran by talking and trading, the Americans have relied on economic and diplomatic sanctions.

Foreign ministers from the European Union have agreed to negotiate closer trade and political ties with Iran, which President George Bush has accused of being the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism, and part of an “axis of evil”. The EU and America both say they want to encourage reformers in Iran. But they have very different approaches.

“IF YOU don’t talk to the reasonable people,” says Chris Patten, the EU’s commissioner for external relations, “you fetch up with fewer reasonable people to talk to.” That, in essence, sums up the EU’s strategy towards Iran: to engage and support “reasonable” reformers, represented most prominently by the popular, elected, president, Muhammad Khatami. Carrots, it is argued, as well as sticks are needed to encourage the reformers, and help them gain the upper hand in their long-running power struggle with hardline, unelected clerics. America prefers to wield a big stick. Iran was quick to congratulate the EU on a “landmark decision”, and on ignoring the “pressures and lobbying of both the US and Israel”. But even in Europe, fans of engagement are wearying of the wait for results.

They are pleased, however, at the resolution of a complex political and procedural wrangle over the terms of the “mandate” under which the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, will talk with Iran. At issue was how to link progress on trade issues with a “political dialogue” covering issues such as human rights, international terrorism and nuclear proliferation. A trade agreement could be negotiated by the commission and ratified by the European Parliament. A political treaty would require the ratification of all 15 EU members.
(More: Economist.com News Source)
2002 © The Economist Newspaper.

Dan