The Hindu : International : Europe plans tougher Iran curbs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 28, 2007
ePaper

International

International

Europe plans tougher Iran curbs

Sarkozy leading the push

PARIS: France, long viewed as too busy making money in Iran to punish it over its nuclear programme, is leading a push under U.S.-friendly President Nicolas Sarkozy and his activist Foreign Minister to hurt Tehran through its pockets. Britain is another European power that sees tougher sanctions as essential.

Yet while Europeans’ fears of another U.S.-led war in their backyard are mounting, few other nations are clamouring to support stepped-up E.U. sanctions that backers say are needed to persuade Iran to heed international demands.

The divisions mirror those that split the continent over Iraq, though the fault lines have shifted.

The United States upped the ante on Thursday with new sanctions targeting the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which Washington accuses of supporting terrorism by backing Shia militants in Iraq.

The move bars U.S. dealings with businesses with links to the Guards, increases pressure on international banks to cut any ties with those firms — and raises the intriguing question of whether the E.U. will follow suit.

European companies have continued raking in profits from business in Iran, from the oil sector to banking deals, since the United States first slapped sanctions on Tehran in 1979.

While corporate rivals in Asia or elsewhere could fill a void left by the possible loss of European companies in Iran, E.U. expertise in the financial or industrial sectors would be missed, analysts said. Iran already faces limited E.U. sanctions and visa bans.

Concerns have been rising in some European corners that the United States or Israel might launch armed intervention to prevent Tehran from developing atomic bombs.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is designed strictly to produce electricity, but has repeatedly defied U.N. demands that it suspend nuclear activity.

Not for stand-off

There is little appetite in Europe for the standoff to lead to war. But few E.U. members agree on what measures to take to make sure one doesn’t break out.

E.U. Foreign Ministers in mid-October failed to agree on new sanctions sought by Mr. Sarkozy’s Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner.

He sent a letter to European counterparts Oct. 2 urging them to examine new E.U. sanctions mainly on Iran’s financial sector, to complement efforts toward a third set of U.N. Security Council sanctions being considered but widely seen as stalled amid hesitations from Russia and China.

“The clock is ticking,” Mr. Kouchner wrote.

Rome and Berlin want to give diplomacy and current sanctions more time, looking for unity through the United Nations first. — AP

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail