Strategic Assessment

October 2003 may well be remembered as an important milestone in the history of European diplomatic activity in general and in the efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation in particular. That month the foreign ministers of France, Britain, and Germany reached agreement with Iran to submit the Iranian nuclear project to closer international inspection. This initiative was approved by other European countries and by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Iran would subsequently proceed to violate some of the agreements it had undertaken, but from the European point of view of critical importance is that European involvement led to this breakthrough in the Iranian crisis.