US gets European backing for new sanctions against Iran

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice won support from European allies for new UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. NATO foreign ministers on Thursday agreed to stay the course in seeking fresh measures at the United Nations to persuade Iran to stop uranium enrichment and reprocessing despite a new US intelligence report that concluded the country halted it nuclear weapons ambitions in 2003. At a working dinner in Brussels, the alliance's headquarters, the ministers accepted the Bush administration argument that Iran remains a threat and needs to be treated as such, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht told reporters. "On Iran, everybody around the table agreed we should not change our position," he said after the dinner at which Rice presented Washington's position.