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British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Wednesday that military action against Iran over its nuclear ambitions is not on the agenda of the United States and Britain.
"There is no question of us going to war in Iran. Why? Because it's not going to resolve the issue," Straw told Sky News television at the Labor Party's annual conference in Brighton, a southern England coastal city.
"No one is talking about going to war against Iran. It's not on the agenda of the United States," he said.
But Straw urged Iran to cooperate with the international community to resolve the standoff over its nuclear program, saying the European Union was ready to widen cooperation with Iran if it convinced the world it had no intention of building a bomb.
The current nuclear standoff was touched off by Iran's resumption on Aug. 8 of its uranium conversion activities, which it suspended last November to open the gates to negotiations with the EU.
The EU has been persuading Tehran to abandon its efforts to build nuclear fuel cycles, including uranium enrichment. However, Iran insists that it will never give up its legal right to the peaceful use of nuclear technology.
The United States accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons under the disguise of civilian program, a charge rejected by Tehran.
On Saturday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed a resolution requiring a report to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions after Iran failed to convince the world its nuclear programs were peaceful.
(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2005)
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