EU threatens new measures if Iran blocks nuclear talks
(BRUSSELS) - EU foreign ministers on Tuesday threatened new measures against Iran if it blocks progress in efforts to resolve the dispute over its controversial nuclear programme.
"Iran's persistent failure to meet its international obligations and Iran's apparent lack of interest in pursuing negotiations require a clear response, including through appropriate measures," the ministers wrote in a text which will now go forward to a full EU summit on Thursday and Friday.
"The European Union would support action by the UN Security Council if Iran continues not to co-operate with the international community over its nuclear programme," the agreed text added, in a reference to further possible United Nations' sanctions against Tehran.
Western powers suspect Tehran is pursuing nuclear technology to acquire a weapons capability. Iran denies the charge, saying its sole ambition is to develop nuclear power for peaceful ends.
Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said the European Union would put a resolution forward to the Security Council for fresh sanctions.
"If this resolution is not adopted or largely taken on board, the European Union could then decide unilaterally on sanctions against Iran," the Austrian Press Agency quoted him as saying.
"The patience of the international community is still there but is hanging by a single thread," he warned.
The UN Security Council has already imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran for enriching uranium at its first plant in the central city of Natanz.
Last month, the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, passed a censure motion against Iran calling on it to halt construction of a second enrichment plant near the central shrine city of Qom.
A full 25 out of 35 countries voted in favour at the IAEA, including veto-wielding UN Security Council permanent members China and Russia, which had previously argued against punitive action against Iran.
Iran sent protest to all 25 countries, the ILNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
"We recommend that you change your behaviour and learn from past experience," the news agency quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying in the letters.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran will doubtless become more determined in its current path of expanding nuclear technology for peaceful purposes."
Iran had said on December 1 that it would send formal letters of protest to the countries that voted against it at the UN watchdog "expressing our serious and friendly complaints along with our views indicating that their decision was wrong."
The IAEA vote followed Iran's rejection of a UN-brokered deal with major powers that would have seen it supplied with fuel for a Tehran reactor that produces medical isotopes in return for allaying Western concerns by shipping out most of its stocks of low-enriched uranium.
After their meeting in Brussels, EU foreign ministers agreed that the bloc "remains ready to engage with Iran in order to reach a negotiated solution to the issue," as long as Tehran takes "concrete decisions towards that end."
They urged Iran to fully comply with UN Security Council resolutions, adding that the construction of the Qom facility was in breach of Tehran's obligations.
The approved summit text adds that EU foreign ministers should "consider options for next steps" at their next meeting in January.