Ashton warns against hasty Iran sanctions

EU Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton has called for prudence on further sanctions against Iran over the country’s nuclear program.

In an interview with AFP, Ashton cautioned against any hasty European move to slap new sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

“We’re not moving quickly on anything,” Ashton said on Wednesday.

The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy also emphasized the need for a United Nations Security Council decision.

“What we’re doing is we’re saying very clearly that the next step on Iran is through the Security Council. I’m very clear on that,” she added.

“I think we have obligations as an international community, next step Security Council and we wait and see,” she further explained.

Meanwhile, Ashton further announced that she was assuming the role of chief international nuclear negotiator with Tehran on the issue.

“I take over Javier [Solana]’s position,” as representative of the six world powers involved in the talks — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — she went on to say.

“One of the things I’ve been doing is looking back over the six years of dialogue that Javier has had with Iran. I still want to see dialogue,” she noted.

“It’s very important to find a solution through talking but unfortunately we’re in a position where we also have to look at what else needs to happen, hence the Security Council,” she concluded.

Meanwhile, US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said on Tuesday that the six power are scheduled to talk on imposing sanctions against Iran in a few days either directly or in a conference call.

Iran is already under three rounds of UNSC sanctions over its nuclear work, which it says is peaceful in nature and in line with the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, to which it is a signatory.

China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has repeatedly expressed its opposition to more sanctions against Iran.

“It is urgent to continue the negotiations, the dialogue,” Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Wednesday after talks with his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner.