EU says too early to discuss sanctions on Iran

Sep 14, 2009, 14:55 GMT

   Brussels - The European Union is ready to wait until October 1 talks with Iran before deciding on whether to impose sanctions on the country over its controversial nuclear programme, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Monday.

'At the moment we're looking towards the possibility of a meeting between the Iranians and the 3+3 (US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany),' said Bildt, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.

   'Such a meeting will take place, and then we'll have to look at the Iranian answer and see if we can go somewhat more concretely into the different details,' Bildt said before chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

   Bildt's comments appeared to suggest that the US, Britain and France would be unable to convince Russia and China to impose sanctions against Tehran during this month's UN general assembly in New York.

   Earlier Monday, officials in Tehran and Brussels confirmed that Iran was ready to meet the world's major powers for talks on its disputed nuclear programme on October 1.

   Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Saeid Jalili and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana 'spoke this morning and agreed on a date for talks ... of October 1,' Solana's spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said.

   Such a meeting, the venue for which has not yet been fixed, would be the first between the administration of Barack Obama and the Iranian government since the US president offered to talk to Tehran upon assuming office in January.

   The world powers had earlier said that they wanted Iran to respond to an offer of direct negotiations with the US by the beginning of the United Nations General Assembly in New York later this month.

   'There are specific requests ... by the (UN) Security Council, there are specific questions by the International Atomic Energy Agency which are grounded on specific concerns by Iran. And if there are specific answers to these specific issues, then this would go a long way to lifting the suspicions,' Bildt said.

   Asked when he expected the issue of sanctions to be raised, Bildt said matters should proceed 'one step at a time.'

   'Exactly what will happen ... is somewhat dependent on what happens in the talks. The meeting itself is a positive step, but how positive a step it is remains to be seen,' the minister said.

His Finnish colleague, Alexander Stubb, said that while matters should proceed in steps, the EU should consider imposing 'unilateral sanctions' against Iran if the talks failed.

The West has long suspected that Iran's allegedly civilian nuclear programme is geared towards producing nuclear weapons.

   But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that Iran would not discuss 'its legitimate and ultimate nuclear rights with anyone.'