EU gets tough on Tehran
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EU foreign ministers agreed today to the toughest economic restrictions yet on Iran. The hope is that this will bring Tehran back to the negotiating table and perhaps break the seemingly endless cycle of on-off talks, recriminations and sanctions over its nuclear programme.
When the EU unveiled its plans earlier this month, analysts expressed surprise at the force of the new sanctions.
The measures, approved by EU foreign ministers today, are designed to hit Iran where it really hurts - in the economically crucial energy sector. They include restrictions on selling oil and gas technology to Iran, as well as a ban on new investment in the sector by European companies.
The measures are very similar to sanctions passed by America last month and represent a US-EU attempt to take the pressure on Iran up a notch from the fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions agreed in June.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton stressed that the aim is to get Tehran to restart talks with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US. The last round of talks on Iran's nuclear energy programme, which many in the international community fear may be a cover for developing nuclear weapons, ground to a halt in October 2009.
"The purpose of these sanctions is to persuade Iran that we need to discuss this issue, and move forward," Ashton said, speaking in Brussels today ahead of the ministerial meeting.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sounded a characteristically defiant note over the EU sanctions yesterday, warning that they could turn out to be a cause for "remorse".
