White House Sits Out Iran Nuclear Talks

The San Francisco Chronicle:

The Bush administration rejected on Thursday a suggestion by former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer that the United States join now-sidelined European negotiations designed to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said American officials were in close consultation with the Europeans. "We are comfortable with the approach we have taken," he said. READ MORE

Fischer, who was Germany's foreign minister from 1998 until last November, said Wednesday that Iran posed the "most important challenge" to the Europeans and the United States, and to their trans-Atlantic partnership.

"It would be really helpful if the United States could join," he said of the talks Britain, France and Germany held with Iran while the United States maintained its diplomatic boycott of Tehran.

"We have an important opportunity to solve this if we work together," Fischer said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Europe is not strong enough."