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usual any longer," State Department spokesman
Nicholas Bums said Tuesday.
While welcoming the steps taken by the European
Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Burns said
threatening Iran with economic sanctions would have
been better.
The State Department's positive gloss on the
Luxembourg results differed from accounts there that
the 15 foreign ministers had resisted calls from the
administration, human rights groups and Iranian
dissidents to abandon their policy of "critical dialogue"
with Tehran.
The policy is based on the notion that lucrative trade
.with Iran gives Germany, France and the other
.Europeans a better chance to engage Iranian leaders in
discussion of their policies.
"The critical dialogue is dead, and we very much
appreciate the fact that the European Union member
countries have acted decisively today to send a clear
message to Iran," Burns said. "We very much welcome
this announcement."
Among the decisions in Luxembourg was to send
. ambassadors back to Tehran. They had been withdrawn
.after a German court ruled AprillO that Iranian leaders
ordered the 1992 killings of four Iranian dissidents in a
Berlin restaurant. Iran denied the charges.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright wrote the EU
governments over the weekend urging them to isolate.
Tehran politicallyand economically ..
But the EU governments backed Germany and France,
who feit that severing ties with Iran would recklessly
damage their lucrative trade.
Burns said, however, the Europeans adopted the view
that Iran must respect the norms of internationallaw
and refrain from terrorism.
"There is no basis for the continuation of the critical
dialogue between the EU and Iran," the spokesman
said. "They have suspended official bilateral ministerial
visits to Iran. They have confirmed -- reconfirmed -- the
policy of an arms boycott on Iran from the European
Union. They will not give visas to Iranians with
intelligence and security functions, and they will
exclude Iranian intelligence personnel from European
Union member states. They have decided to keep their.
relationship with Iran under close review."
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