France Says Iran Making Arms

France on Thursday accused Iran of secretly making nuclear weapons, in remarks that echoed the tough U.S. stance on Tehran’s disputed atomic program.

The accusation by French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy -- which Iran quickly denied -- appeared to reflect mounting exasperation and a tougher stance by one of three key European negotiators.

“No civilian nuclear program can explain the Iranian nuclear program. It is a clandestine military nuclear program,” Douste-Blazy said on the France 2 television network.

By contrast, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that she was “truly optimistic, I would even say very optimistic, that we can do everything to solve this conflict with diplomatic means.”

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was cautious, saying there were “strong suspicions internationally that Iran may be seeking ... to develop a nuclear weapons capability,” but “we do not have absolute proof.”

The board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, voted this month to refer Tehran to the U.N. Security Council, but Russia, a close ally of Iran, insisted that the council not take up the issue until March. Tehran subsequently resumed small-scale uranium enrichment.

The next big test comes Monday when Iranian-Russian talks begin in Moscow on a proposal to move Iran’s enrichment program to Russia and suspend enrichment on Iranian soil.

Tensions over Iran are likely to diminish if Tehran agrees to the Russian proposal -- and to balloon if it does not.

“The international community has sent a very firm message in telling the Iranians to return to reason and suspend all nuclear activity and the enrichment and conversion of uranium, but they aren’t listening to us,” Douste-Blazy said.

“Now it’s up to the Security Council to say what it will do, what means it will use to stop, to manage, to halt this terrible crisis of nuclear proliferation caused by Iran,” he said.