Thursday

Rice backs EU over action on Iran

Damn this looks like Iraq

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged the UN to confront Iran's "defiance" over its nuclear programme. Earlier, foreign ministers from the UK, France and Germany said the time had come for Iran's nuclear issue to be dealt with by the UN Security Council. However, Iran says it is still willing to discuss its programme and has urged the EU to step back from referral. Russia did not rule out referring Iran to the Security Council but said not all diplomatic steps had been taken. The UK, France and Germany - the so-called EU three - met in Berlin on Thursday in response to Iran's decision to resume nuclear research this week. Speaking afterwards, they said talks with Iran had reached a "dead end" and called for an emergency session of the UN's nuclear watchdog, which could refer Iran to the council and lead to possible sanctions.

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