Minister: "consensus enough" for EU Iran sanctions if UN fails

Mar 13, 2010, 12:12 GMT

Saariselka, Finland - There is 'consensus enough' between European Union members to approve more EU sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear programme if the United Nations Security Council stalls on the issue, Finland's foreign minister said Saturday.

Alexander Stubb was speaking while hosting informal talks with the EU's foreign-policy director, Catherine Ashton, and seven other European foreign ministers in northern Finland. His comment came a week after talks with all 27 EU foreign ministers.

'I am quite hopeful that we will be able to get something in the UN Security Council. Failing there, we will just have to do it unilaterally, the EU directly to Iran,' Stubb said.

There is 'consensus enough' among the EU's member states to push through EU-only sanctions, Stubb said.

Major EU foreign-policy decisions such as the imposition of new sanctions are traditionally taken by unanimity.

The EU already has a range of trade bans in place on Iran in a bid to pressurize it into opening its controversial uranium-enrichment programme to UN inspectors.

So far, EU policy has been to maintain those sanctions, urge Iran to return to talks, and keep more punitive action in reserve in case the UN Security Council calls for it.

But Iran's February decision to boost its enrichment programme outraged European opinion and led to calls for new UN measures.

And recent comments from UN veto holder China, in particular, that it would not be right to impose sanctions, have led some EU ministers to urge the bloc to impose its own measures.

Stubb said that member states had suggested a range of possible sanctions, including on the energy trade and the financial sector.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who also attended the informal talks in the Arctic ski resort of Saariselka, said that 'we do not want to see any more sanctions in our region.'