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BERLIN-Germany opposes a French call for the European Union to impose a new round of sanctions against Iran if world powers fail to agree on fresh punitive measures next week, a German magazine reported on Saturday.Der Spiegel magazine said Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was prepared for intense talks this week with the five permanent U.N. Security Council members on whether the United Nations would adopt new punitive measures against Iran.If the Security Council fails to agree on a new sanctions resolution, French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants EU members to approve separate EU sanctions against the Islamic Republic, an idea Spiegel said Washington supported but Berlin opposed.The magazine cited a senior official in Steinmeier's department in its report which it pre-released before its edition goes on sale on Monday.The United States, Germany, France and Britain have led a diplomatic drive to punish Iran for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment program. They succeeded in persuading reluctant Russia and China to back two U.N. sanctions resolutions.Despite the sanctions, which have led to a sharp decrease in Western trade with Iran, Tehran refuses to abandon a nuclear program it says is for the peaceful generation of electricity.
Germany's Foreign Office has prepared information for Steinmeier to present at the U.N. talks showing the amount of business several big French firms do with Iran has hardly changed despite the sanctions already in place, Spiegel said.Germany, by contrast, had sharply cut its exports to Iran.French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner last Sunday raised the specter of war but has since backed away from the comment.Iran told Western powers on Saturday they would regret launching any attack over Tehran's nuclear activities and it rolled out a display of missiles and other hardware that underscored its warning.
As in the days of Noah....
