JACK STRAW has drawn up a dossier putting the case against a military attack on Iran amid fears that President George W Bushs administration may seek Britains backing for a new conflict.
Straw and his officials fear that hawks in Washington will talk the American president into a strike against Irans nuclear facilities, just as they persuaded him to go to war in Iraq.
The foreign secretary has produced a 200-page dossier that rules out military action and makes the case for a negotiated solution to curbing the ayatollahs nuclear ambitions amid increasingly bellicose noises from Washington.
He will press home the point at a meeting with Condoleezza Rice, the incoming secretary of state, at a meeting in Washington tomorrow.
The document says a peaceful solution led by Britain, France and Germany is in the best interests of Iran and the international community. It refers to safeguarding Irans right to the peaceful use of nuclear technology.
The dossier, entitled Irans Nuclear Programme, was quietly issued in the Commons on the eve of Bushs inauguration last week for fear of provoking a public rift with Washington  although privately tensions are running high between the two nations.
The approach contrasts with the governments two Iraq dossiers, which were trumpeted to make the case for war.
US agents have tried to locate suspected nuclear sites in Iran, according to a report last week by Seymour Hersh, the investigative journalist who broke the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal.
British officials are increasingly concerned that months of patient European-led diplomacy may explode in a torrent of bunker-busting attacks by US stealth bombers. There is also concern in London that the Pentagon may be ordered to act on the basis of its flawed intelligence, while British agents on the ground believe Iran is complying with nuclear inspectors.
Fears in London of an attack were fuelled when Dick Cheney, the American vice-president, said that Iran was top of the list as a trouble spot for the administration. Rice said it was an outpost of tyranny.
The message that the British government wants no part in another war in the Middle East will be reinforced by Tony Blair when he meets Bush in Brussels next month and at an Anglo-American summit in Washington after the British general election, which is expected in May.
The foreign secretarys dossier sets out in detail the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since Iran signed up to an agreement 15 months ago.
Despite his confidence in the negotiations, which have been frustrated by setbacks, IAEA minutes published in his dossier show that the agency believes that all declared nuclear material has been accounted for.
However, minutes of a key meeting last November show that the agency is not yet in a position to conclude there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran.
The minutes go on: In view of the past undeclared nature of significant aspects of Irans nuclear programme, and its past pattern of concealment, however, this conclusion can be expected to take longer than in normal circumstances.
'''London (Großbritannien), 23.01.2005''' - Laut Sunday Times fürchtet der britische Außenminister Jack Straw einen Krieg mit dem Iran und hofft auf eine diplomatische Lösung des Atomstreits.

Im Gegensatz zu den Dossiers über den Irak, die eine Befürwortung des Irakkrieges nahelegten, unterstützt ein neues Dossier die diplomatischen Bemühungen, die Großbritannien, Frankreich und Deutschland unternehmen. Das von Jack Straw herausgegebene 200-seitige Dokument gibt dem Iran das Recht Atomenergie friedlich zu nutzen und verwirft kriegerische Aktionen zugunsten von Verhandlungen.

Inwieweit sich die amerikanische Regierung davon beeindrucken lässt, ist noch offen, da zuletzt starker Druck auf die regierenden Mullahs im Iran ausgeübt wurde. Am Montag trifft sich Straw mit Condoleezza Rice in Washington, wo der Iran ein Thema sein dürfte.