Pentagon Official Hopes Diplomacy Will Resolve Row with Iran

Reuters:

A leading hawk in the Bush administration said on Tuesday he hoped that diplomatic pressure would be enough to persuade Iran to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program. U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, an architect of the Iraq war, said Washington would continue to back the diplomatic engagement of Iran by the European Union.

"We are supporting that and are hoping that diplomacy... and the pressure that can be brought to bear on Iran will lead the Iranians to recognize that Iran's interests are best served by getting rid of its nuclear weapons program," Feith told a news conference in the Turkish capital Ankara.

He said Libya, which pledged in December 2003 to abandon its own weapons of mass destruction, should be a model for Iran. Tripoli's decision ended its international isolation.

"If the international community could get the Iranians to decide to follow that model, the world would be better off," Feith said. ...

Washington has rebuffed pleas by the EU "big three" -- Britain, France and Germany -- to become directly involved in their diplomatic drive to persuade Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment activities.