At a press conference in New York Beckett commented on the Iran nuclear issue as follows (as appears on UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office website):
Margaret Beckett:
You’re inviting me to, to tread down the path of talking about military action. I’m not going to do that. People, everybody expresses their view, their, their stance in their own way. The way that I choose to express it is that it’s not the intention, it is not anybody’s intention to take the course of military action and that I think is, is simple and straight forward and clear.
I think the, the clear issue is everybody wants, every, everybody believes that Iran should and must move in to compliance with the view and the recommendation and the requirements of the IAEA Board. Everybody wants to find a way to achieve that. It may be that sanctions have to be applied. No one wants to apply sanctions if it’s not necessary.
But what everybody wants is to get Iran to recognise that the international community is serious in its insistence that we, we can not continue with the assumption that Iran can just continue to flout the (indistinct) community, the international community in this way.
Margaret Beckett:
It’s my first full day, tackling what’s a hugely important and, and difficult issue which I suppose is, is characteristic for this portfolio. But, my task in tackling it is made much easier by the huge amount of detailed and, and skilled work that’s been done by my, by my predecessor, Jack Straw.
