G-8 calls for halt to violence in Iran

Hürriyet Daily News with wires

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The Group of Eight leading powers on Friday called on Iran to immediately put a halt to post-election violence but refrained from calling into question the poll result. Despite calls from Italy and France for a firm condemnation, the foreign ministers backed off from harsh criticism and instead said the crisis must be settled through peaceful means.

"We want violence to stop immediately," Agence France-Presse quoted Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini as telling a news conference after releasing a carefully-worded declaration from the world powers. G-8 member Russia had warned against isolating Iran with a toughly-worded condemnation, arguing that it could trigger a backlash from Tehran that would jeopardize cooperation with Iran over its nuclear program.

"We are concerned about the aftermath of the Iranian presidential election," the foreign ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States said in their statement. "We fully respect the sovereignty of Iran. We deplore post-election violence which led to the loss of lives of Iranian civilians and urge Iran to respect fundamental human rights."

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election in the June 12 polls but the opposition has charged that the vote was rigged and Western governments have questioned the legitimacy of the result. The West has expressed alarm over Tehran's crackdown on mass street protests, arrests of opposition members and severe restrictions placed on the media following the contested vote.

"The crisis should be settled soon through democratic dialogue and peaceful means," the G8 ministers said.

Meeting in the northern Adriatic city of Trieste, the G-8 called on the Iranian government to "guarantee that the will of the Iranian people is reflected in the electoral process."

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner acknowledged that the joint declaration was a compromise between a tougher European stance and Russia's more conciliatory stance.

Divergences appeared when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that isolating Iran was the "wrong approach" and that "no one wanted to condemn" Iran over the elections.

"At the same time, we will not interfere in Iran's internal affairs. Our position is that all issues that have emerged in the context of the elections will be sorted out in line with democratic procedures," The Associated Press quoted Lavrov as saying.

"The United States is deeply troubled by the use of violence," said U.S. Under Secretary of State William Burns. "Such actions against peaceful demonstrators are profoundly unjust."



North Korea and Mideast

Meanwhile, the foreign ministers condemned North Korea's nuclear and missile tests and called on the country to return to the negotiating table.

"We condemn in the strongest terms the nuclear tests" in May and the April launch using ballistic missile technology, "which constitute a threat to regional peace and stability," the G-8 foreign ministers said in a statement.

The foreign ministers urged Pyongyang to "fulfill its obligations under relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions, to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs as well as ballistic missile programs."

The ministers have also demanded Israel stop all settlement construction and immediately open the borders of blockaded Gaza. The G-8 ministers also called on both the Israelis and Palestinians to resume direct peace negotiations. Israel has rejected demands that it halt all settlement building.