French France toughened its line towards Iran on Monday, demanding objective guarantees of the civilian nature of its nuclear programme and threatening to seek sanctions at the United Nations Security Council.
In his annual address to his ambassadors, President Jacques Chirac said France, Germany, and the UK the so-called EU3 were still prepared to pursue broad-based political, economic and energy co-operation with Iran. But he warned that the legitimate development of Iran's civilian nuclear energy programme could be not be used to disguise the acquisition of a military nuclear arsenal.
“Today I call on the Iranian authorities to choose the path of co-operation and confidence by carefully examining this offer and resuming their commitment to suspend activities related to the production of fissile materials,” he said.
Over the past two years the EU has adopted a more conciliatory approach to Iran than has the US, which has pushed for a referral to the Security Council and has hinted at military action.
Instead, the EU3 approach has been geared to persuading Iran to scrap part of its nuclear programme in return for technical assistance and improved economic ties, such as membership of the World Trade Organisation.
The EU3 stopped negotiations with Iran this month after Iran resumed work related to uranium enrichment. In return for greater US backing for the talks, the Europeans assured President George W. Bush this year that in the event of such a breakdown they would support a referral to the Security Council. But it is not certain that the US and EU could win consensus backing for a UN referral from the International Energy Agency board, which includes countries such as Venezuela, Vietnam and Yemen.
A senior Iranian involved in the EU talks described comments by Mr Chirac as “more moderate and more realistic compared to some weeks ago in understanding Iran's new situation”.
“His comments show that Europe is not willing to refer Iran to the Security Council at this stage,” the official said. “Also, Iran has had new diplomatic moves during the past week in Vienna, Paris and London to find a breakthrough. I see his comments as a positive response to those moves.”
In his foreign policy address, Mr Chirac stressed the need to ease tensions across the Middle East by ending conflicts and supporting democracy, particularly in Iraq. He also called for a strengthening of global governance by reforming the UN and providing more support to the developing world. He said his government would introduce an international tax on airline tickets next year to provide permanent funding for the fight against Aids, tuberculosis and malaria. France would hold a ministerial meeting next February to discuss ways of implementing this idea, which has already been backed by Germany, Spain, Brazil, Chile and Algeria.
Mr Chirac reaffirmed France's desire to create a “political, ambitious and socially oriented Europe” in spite of French voters' rejection of Europe's constitutional treaty. “Europe is not destined to become a vast free-trade area diluted in the globalised economy.” Additional reporting by Daniel Dombey in Brussels
