The European Union, spurred by North Korea's nuclear test, backed limited United Nations sanctions against Iran's nuclear programme on Tuesday after Tehran spurned conditions for opening negotiations. The EU's 25 foreign ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, called for incremental measures that officials said would be targeted first at individuals and materials involved in Iranian uranium enrichment activities. The West suspects Iran is seeking nuclear weapons but Tehran insists it only aims to generate electricity.After four months of talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Iran this month rejected a U.N. demand that it suspend enrichment. "The Iranians' refusal leaves us no choice today but to take to the Security Council route. The Security Council should adopt gradual, reversible measures proportionate to Iranian actions," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called it the "first step in sanctions" but stressed the EU's offer of cooperation remained on the table if Iran was willing to meet the conditions. In New York, French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere told Reuters three European powers -- France, Britain and Germany -- planned to put forward a draft U.N. Security Council resolution "during the course of this week. We are aiming for Wednesday or Thursday."
EU ministers made clear that alarm at North Korea's nuclear test and its implications for other countries were one key factor in showing their resolve towards Iran, although their economic interests with Tehran are far greater. "The most important thing is to have a united response as we showed with North Korea," European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.
Spanish Secretary of State for European Affairs Alberto Navarro said sanctions would be gradual because Europe, unlike the United States, needed Iran as an oil supplier. Mark Fitzpatrick of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said the approach with Tehran would be gentler than with Pyongyang. "A sanctions resolution on Iran will not be swift or biting as it has been with North Korea," he said, noting that while Pyongyang openly affirmed its nuclear weapons intentions, Tehran insisted its programme was peaceful. There was no conclusive proof it sought an atom bomb, he said.
Solana, who negotiated with Iranian national security chief Ali Larijani in a vain effort to persuade Tehran to suspend its most sensitive nuclear work, said he had spoken by telephone with Larijani on Monday and the door would remain open. "I think there is always hope, and I would like it to be possible to start again, but it is up to Iran now to accept the conditions to start real negotiations," he said.
In a statement, the ministers expressed deep concern that Iran had not yet suspended enrichment activities and said the EU has no choice but to support consultations in the United Nations on measures on the basis of resolution 1696, which told Iran to suspend enrichment by August 31 or face sanctions. Russia and China have so far been reticent about any sanctions, but a European diplomat said they had accepted the principle of an incremental approach raising pressure.
In Vienna, a senior diplomat familiar with International Atomic Energy Agency monitoring in Iran said Iranian efforts to develop its enrichment programme beyond the initial test phase appeared slow. Iran had planned to have a second cascade of 164 centrifuge enrichment machines running by end-September but this had not happened, he said, while the first cascade was only being sporadically fed with uranium UF-6 gas for enrichment into fuel. Analysts have estimated Iran will need 3-10 years to produce enough fuel for bombs.