GERMANY: Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urges continued diplomacy on the Iran nuclear crisis; Mahmoud Abbas reiterates Palestinian committment to peace

Steinmeier on Thursday (February 22, 2007) said he believed a new debate over sanctions against Iran might develop. "After the developments during the last few weeks we did not expect anything different. The IAEA report has shown that Iran has not satisfied the expectations of the international community. Now we have to talk and think about how to proceed" Steinmeier said. "And of course the options include another round at the Security Council. The talks in the coming days will show how the international community proceeds," Steinmeier said. He made the comment just a few hours after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran had failed to meet a February 21 deadline to halt enrichment, which can make fuel for power plants or material for warheads. Its refusal to heed the demand exposes Iran to possible new sanctions, in addition to those imposed in December. Steinmeier made the comment on the sidelines of his meeting with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Berlin. During the meeting, Steinmeier assured Abbas of European support for the establishment of a Palestinian unity government and underscored the conditions of acceptance for such a government. "You (Mr. Abbas) understand that we will reserve the assessment of the government until we know what decisions and what programmatic announcement such a government will make. Our expectations are clear and unchanged: Firstly, we expect a lasting renouncement of violence, secondly acceptance of all agreements made by the PLO so far and of course the acceptance of the state of Israel. There is hardly any other way to a two state solution, these are the criteria that have been decided upon in earlier agreements and in the Roadmap," Steinmeier said. For his part, Abbas reiterated his government's commitment to peace. "We assure (the international community) that we see the mission to (establish) two states to be binding for us, the mission to establish a sovereign Palestinian state next to the state of Israel. We also are committed to the principles of denouncing terrorism and violence and to uphold international policy and agreements as has been agreed before by the PLO and the the Arab peace initiative," Abbas said. He expressed hopes that the quartet of Middle East negotiators - the EU, US, UN and Russia- would consider lifting the current boycott of the Hamas-led government. The quartet met in Berlin to discuss how to proceed in the face of a new power-sharing pact between Islamist Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party. "As far as the boycott is concerned we are very close to the European Union and also close to the Quartet. We believe that the next meeting will bring a clearer perspective to the situation and we expect some movement in that direction," Abbas said. The quartet of Middle East mediators put off a decision on Wednesday on how to handle a new Palestinian unity government amid divisions between the United States and Russia on an aid embargo.

ITN Source | February 23, 2007

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