CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

FOREIGN AFFAIRS – EU AND IRAN - 30 June 2005

FOREIGN AFFAIRS – EU AND IRAN - 30 June 2005

Dr Julian Lewis: What prospect is there of the British presidency being used to encourage other EU members to take action in respect of the prospect of the Iranian nuclear bomb under a newly elected hard-line, fundamentalist President?

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr Jack Straw): When I began work with France and Germany negotiating with Iran in what is now called the E3, there was much scepticism about whether European consensus would hold. It has held. My French and German counterparts and Javier Solana have been as firm as me in negotiating on the dossier. At each stage of the resolutions at six meetings of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency there has been unanimity led by Europeans. Following the election of the new President, we shall work with Iran on the basis that he will meet and keep the commitments to which his predecessors kept. We shall begin negotiations with him on that basis; if that changes, our position has been made very clear.]