Washington - US President Barack Obama has been squabbling
with Western European leaders over how to handle issues such as the
global economic crisis and climate change, and those differences
appeared to hang over the upcoming G8 summit in Italy.
But in the weeks since Iran's June 12 election and subsequent mass
demonstrations alleging that the result was rigged, the United States
and Western European allies have found a unified voice in condemning
the violent crackdown against protestors, and the issue will play
prominently at the July 8-10 gathering of the eight leading economies
in L'Aquila, Italy.
It will be Obama first Group of Eight summit since taking office
in January.
While Russia has been reluctant to come down hard on Iran over its
nuclear programme and the election turmoil, Britain, Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States have all criticized
Tehran for suppressing the freedom of expression.
Russia has been the only G8 country to declare that Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the clear victor in the election
over challenger Mir-Hossein Moussavi. Obama has opted to let the
situation play out while decrying the violence.
'We can't say definitively what exactly happened at polling places
throughout the country,' Obama said. 'What we know is that a sizeable
percentage of the Iranian people themselves, spanning Iranian
society, consider this election illegitimate.'
Italian President Silvio Berlusconi on Monday said that potential
sanctions against Iran will be on the table at the G8 summit, but it
remains to be seen whether such a move would garner widespread
support. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has played down the
possibility of sanctions.
The United States has had comprehensive sanctions in place against
Iran for decades, and Obama might be unwilling for now to back
sanctions in response to an internal Iranian dispute, over concerns
it could harm chances for opening direct negotiations with Tehran on
the nuclear issue.
Western countries remain unified in preventing Iran from
developing nuclear-weapons capability. In the preparatory meeting of
G8 foreign ministers last week in Trieste, Italy, they issued a
statement setting a September deadline for Iran to rejoin
negotiations, including direct talks with the United States.
Obama has pledged to hold direct dialogue with Iran on the nuclear
matter and a host of other issues, but has not outlined a definitive
approach for doing so and is awaiting the outcome of the upheaval. He
has warned however, that his overture will not be open-ended and that
he would expect positive steps from Tehran by the end of the year.
The G8 summit comes ahead of the larger Group of 20 nations
planning to meet in September in the US city of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, to discuss the economic crisis. Obama has been at odds
with his European counterparts, who want to see more regulation of US
financial markets.
The gap on that issue has been most acute with German Chancellor
Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but the two sides
appear to moving closer to common ground since Obama announced his
regulatory plan earlier this month.
During a meeting at the White House between Merkel and Obama on
Friday, the two leaders appeared to move closer on climate change.
Germany in the past had expressed frustration with the Obama
administration for not doing enough to fight global warming.
But her visit coincided with the passage of legislation in the
House of Representatives that for the first time would place
limitations on greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
'The fact that with the United States we stand where we stand
today is an enormous success, which I would not have thought possible
a year ago,' Merkel said.
USA
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