Iran: European foreign ministers said they were still pursuing a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear crisis yesterday despite the first mention of economic sanctions.
Meanwhile US president George Bush, speaking at the National Newspaper Association government affairs conference in Washington, said Iran's nuclear ambitions were of "grave national security concern" and he wanted a diplomatic solution found.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana floated the possibility of sanctions in an interview published before the start of a two-day meeting of ministers in Salzburg, Austria. In an interview with Austrian paper Der Standard, Mr Solana said he did not rule out sanctions if Tehran failed to allay fears that it plans to build a nuclear bomb.
"I do not rule out sanctions, but it depends on what kind of sanctions they are," said Mr Solana in his first explicit mention of economic measures against Iran. "We certainly do not want to hurt the Iranian people . . . It won't be easy for the security council."
Yesterday Mr Bush said US concerns were the result of Iran's stated desire to destroy Israel and the US belief that Tehran wants to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian power generation.
The UN security council will take up Iran's case next week after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sent the council a report saying it could not verify that Iran's nuclear plans were purely peaceful.
But several EU foreign ministers urged a cautious approach to sanctions yesterday. Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik said she would not "participate in that game of 'is it an option or is it not?'." British foreign secretary Jack Straw deflected questions about sanctions, telling reporters: "Let's take this thing one step at a time, shall we? It's gone to New York in order to reinforce the authority of the IAEA."
Russia and China currently oppose placing sanctions on Iran, which says it only wants nuclear technology to generate electricity. Ambassadors from the five permanent security council members, the US, Britain, France, Russia and China, met last night to work out a statement that the western powers hope will be adopted by the 15-nation world body next week. At the meeting in Salzburg, ministers also reiterated demands that Hamas recognise the state of Israel and follow a peaceful path or face losing the EU as an aid donor. The EU is currently providing short-term financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority in the wake of Hamas's election victory in January.
But it has warned that it will cut its links with the authority unless Hamas changes its policy when it enters government.
"Without a statement on that [ change] we will not work with a Hamas-led government. It is absolutely clear this can't be hot air," said German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
EU ministers also discussed the possibility of imposing further economic sanctions on Belarus unless its leader, president Alexander Lukashenko, ensured that the upcoming elections in the state were democratic. The warning followed reports of further arrests of opposition elections workers in the run-up to the poll.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern urged caution, warning that further sanctions could hurt the Belarussian population rather than the regime.