Obama wants Europe to close Iran loopholes

VALENTINA POP

13.01.2009 @ 17:26 CET

EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS – The incoming Obama administration will step up its calls on Europe to close legal loopholes allowing Iran to pursue its nuclear activities, outgoing US ambassador to Brussels Kristen Silverberg said on Tuesday (13 January).

"Iran is still taking advantage of their economic ties here in Europe," Ms Silverberg said at a conference organised by the European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think-tank.

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The Obama administration is expected to raise the problem of Europe's loopholes in its sanctions regime, including "transport companies involved in supporting proliferation sensitive activities," stopping export credits to Iran and all financial assistance, she said.

Ms Silverberg, a political appointee of the outgoing Bush administration, has been in office for less than six months and will leave her posting next Monday, a day before the inauguration of incoming president Barack Obama.

She stressed that the president-elect had endorsed a bill in the Senate providing for very tough sanctions against Iran and that he called on Americans to pressure companies to cut their financial ties with Iran.

"Europe is really the key to that. What we see around the world is that the financial sector is looking to Europe to see how to apply its sanctions. This will be the high watermark for the international response. I think the new administration will look to Brussels in particular to focus that effort."

Ms Silverberg did not see Mr Obama's promise to engage in direct diplomacy with Tehran as a change of policy, but rather as a different tactic, part of the same "carrots and sticks" diplomacy approach pursued by the outgoing administration.

"The broad parameters of US policy remain constant – from the Clinton to this administration and the next. It's not the fundamental policy that's shifting, but tactics and sometimes the tone and the style," she explained.

A representative of the Iranian embassy to Brussels, Seyed Alaeddin Vahid Gharavi, was also present at the debate and asked the ambassador why the US was supporting India's nuclear programme, despite the country not being part of the non-proliferation treaty.

Ms Silverberg said that India did not try to deceive the international community and was not sponsoring organisations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Obama ready for Gaza crisis

The Middle East peace process, especially after the current war on Gaza, was top of the list of the incoming Obama administration, Ms Silverberg said.

She pointed to the fact that president-elect Obama appointed General James L. Jones his national security advisor after having served in the Bush administration as a special envoy on Middle East issues.

The "two state-solution" adopted by the outgoing administration would definitely be the "basis" of the Obama adminstration's efforts, engaging with international and regional partners, she predicted.

"The US will continue to reiterate Israel's right to defend itself against terrorist attacks – something about which the president-elect has made comments during the transition about the Gaza crisis," Ms Silverberg said.

She stressed that the only acceptable ceasefire was a "real one", not one that allowed Hamas to acquire more weapons and resume attacks.

Climate change deal

An area where the US diplomat saw no disagreements between Brussels and Washington was climate change. The challenge this time was not for the EU and US to agree, but to get a "real global agreement" in December at the UN conference in Copenhagen by convincing Brazil, India and China to adopt the climate goals.

She rejected criticism that the US did not ratify the Kyoto protocol, arguing that the bill could not have passed the US Congress.

Washington was not disrespectful of international treaties, she said, on the contrary, it did not want to adopt something it could not live up to.