Posted on 01/25/2010 1:56:32 PM PST by pissant
Brussels - European Union foreign ministers on Monday backed away from threatening Iran with fresh sanctions over its controversial nuclear programme, saying that the bloc should only bring in new restrictions if the United Nations Security Council asked.
The EU has already hit Iran with a range of sanctions, but these have not been enough to stop the programme, leading some member states to question whether further punishment would have any effect.
'We need to see what comes out of the Security Council discussions and the role the members play and then return to the subject,' the bloc's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told journalists in Brussels, after meeting with EU foreign ministers.
Sweden's Carl Bildt seemed to agree, as he spoke to the press before the talks with his counterparts.
'The sanction instrument is a very blunt one, so it should be used with extreme care,' he stated.
'Our aim is to get the Iranians to the negotiating table and have a political solution, and if there are any ... sanctions which can reinforce that possibility, I'm ready to look at them,' Bildt added.
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