Iran poses clement stance toward EU's helplessness in WTO negotiation
20/12/2004 11:19
Iran posed a clement stance towards the European Union's (EU) failure in
midwifing Iran's WTO entry talks, saying the EU was out-powered, the official
IRNA news agency reported Sunday.
"The Europeans backed us, but their power
did not match (that of the Americans)," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza
Asefi was quoted as saying.
"The Europeans made their efforts, but it was
apparently above their capacity; however, this was not very unexpected to us,"
Asefi said.
"The issue requires a consensus, but it is important that the
Europeans should pressure the Americans and oblige it to accept Iran's entry,"
Asefi added.
The EU has promised to help Iran with the entry into the WTO in
return for Iran's suspension of its sensitive nuclear activities.
On Monday,
the WTO agreed to begin accession talks with Iraq and Afghanistan, but the US
vetoed any such negotiations with Iran.
Iran's efforts to join the WTO have
been blocked by the US for dozens of times in recent years.
Iran and the US,
who had been close allies in the 1970s, turned into enemies after Iran's Islamic
Revolution in 1979.
The US accused Iran of secretly developing nuclear
weapons and sponsoring terrorists, categorizing Iran into the so-called "axis of
evil" and imposing harsh sanctions on the country.
Iran, in return, termed
the US as enemy of the whole Islamic world.
Xinhua News
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