US position on Iran nuclear issue mistaken: Greenstock

Former British Ambassador to the UN Sir Jeremy Greenstock believes that the strong support for unilateral action by the US in the dispute over Iran's peaceful nuclear program is a "misassessment."

"My instinct on this is that the US is not going to be able to settle the Iran question unilaterally," said Greenstock, who was Britain's top envoy in New York during the build-up to the Iraq war. "That must be done multilaterally," he said.

In an interview with BBC Radio Four's Today program on Thursday, he also suggested that any thoughts by America to try and overthrow Iran's elected government by supporting dissidents was "not credible." The Iranian people "are persuaded, not without reason, that there is an outside force against them," said the envoy, who also served as the UK's special representative to Iraq following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime.

"They are more united with the greater the pressure seems to be from the US," he added.