The U.S. has proposed support for Iran's entry into the World Trade Union if Iran ends its efforts to enrich uranium. Enriched uranium can be used to make nuclear weapons. So far, Iran has rejected incentives to stop its weapons development program. European negotiators announced that if Iran continues they will have "no choice" but to call on the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions.
ACT ONE -- ELIE KRAKOWSKI 0:05 "I believe that the entire exercise is an exercise in futility."
Voice: This is Elie Krakowski, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council.
ACT TWO -- ELIE KRAKOWSKI 0:37 "I think that the Iranians are determined to develop a nuclear capability. It's a government that is highly unpopular in the country, but I believe that the nuclear issue is probably the only issue on which they do have popular backing. And I think we are being taken for a ride here by the Iranians, playing on the tremendous wish on the part of the Europeans to have things basically calm and easy so that economic and trade relations can go on."
Voice: Alireza Nourizadeh is the Center for Arab-Iranian Studies. He says the European negotiators should be tougher with the Iranians:
ACT THREE -- ALIREZA NOURIZADEH 0:25 "The French and German in particular. They shouldn't think just about their trade interests and dealing with Iran. They have to think about the danger of dealing with an Islamic ideological regime.... I think the American policy is at the moment the right policy, putting pressure as much as they can.... There should be sanctions against the Iranian regime, not the Iranian people."
Voice: Jeffrey Bergner is a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He says that negotiations with the Iranian regime "will not be fruitful":
ACT FOUR -- JEFFREY BERGNER 0:22 "We appear to be committed to taking this to the Security Council. It's very unclear what will happen in the Security Council at that point in time, even if we have some of our European friends with us. It's not clear to me that China or Russia, or both, will necessarily cooperate at the Security Council level. Even if everyone were to cooperate...it's still a bit unclear to me that that would be sufficient, as the Iranians look at this, to deter them from continuing with their program."
Voice: Jeffrey Bergner says the Iranians "see so much advantage to this nuclear program that the downsides have to be very, very large for them to give it up."