EU/Iran

      European diplomats here promised "robust" action from the European Union on Iran and said the EU will enact its own sanctions if the UN Security Council approves a weak third resolution, despite a US intelligence report saying Iran halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago. Emissaries from Britain, France and Germany, speaking at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy Thursday, said the intelligence assessment would do virtually nothing to change European policy toward Iran and that the EU would soon be indicating continued commitment to preventing a nuclear Iran. The US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), released last Monday, found that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 even as Teheran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of the international community, media reported. Israel is encouraged by the strong support of the Europeans despite fallout from the NIE, which has led analysts here to conclude that politically, America can no longer use the military option against Iran. The lack of a military threat, along with the intelligence findings themselves, will hinder efforts to pass further sanctions at the UN. A third such resolution has been under consideration for months. Israel couldn't ask for more from the Europeans, one Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post. However, the official disagreed with their assessment that the NIE hadn't changed the reality of policy options for dealing with Iran. Hans-Peter Hinrichsen, first secretary for political affairs at the German Embassy in Washington, said he wouldn't speculate too much on the details of a resolution still under negotiation, but did say, "The impression is that it will be more than the last Security Council resolution. It will not simply be a repetition." He said the Europeans expected it to pass at some point, but added that if it didn't or if it was unsatisfactory, they would take their own steps. "We don't want EU sanctions to damage the United Nations Security Council process. But if we see that process is not effective, or we don't see a Security Council resolution," he said, "or in case it should be too weak or whatever, the EU will take decisions how it will enact and react to that. And I think there is a certain amount of consensus that the EU will have to go further then and to act on its own." The French Embassy's Counselor Nicolas Roche backed Hinrichsen's comments and said that "discussions have already gone on in the EU on the different ways we can reinforce this sanctions mechanism."(15,11)