Reuters: French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy urged Iran on Saturday to study carefully the European Union’s offer
of incentives in return for a suspension of its nuclear fuel work, after Tehran rejected the offer. “Faced with the first, negative reactions from Iran, I urge its leaders to give themselves the time to examine these proposals with care,” Douste-Blazy told Le Journal du Dimanche in an early release of an interview to run on Sunday. Reuters
PARIS – French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy urged Iran on Saturday to study carefully the European Union’s offer of incentives in return for a suspension of its nuclear fuel work, after Tehran rejected the offer.
“Faced with the first, negative reactions from Iran, I urge its leaders to give themselves the time to examine these proposals with care,” Douste-Blazy told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper in an early release of an interview to run on Sunday. Asked if France’s position would be shared by other nations if the issue was taken to the U.N. Security Council, Douste-Blazy said such a situation had not yet arisen: “We are not there.”
“We hope the Iranians will study our proposals very closely,” he said. “We are ready to talk to them when they want to. But if they want to resume their sensitive nuclear activities in a unilateral manner, we cannot remain immobile.”
He pointed out that the EU — represented by Britain, France and Germany — has called a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tuesday to warn Iran against restarting sensitive nuclear work. The IAEA can refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
“If Iran was to still not listen to our call for reason, we would be led to take the issue before the Security Council,” Douste-Blazy said.
