AFP: Iran must take urgent action to allay mounting international concerns over its nuclear drive, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said Thursday after talks among the major powers.
UNITED NATIONS (AFP)— Iran must take urgent action to allay mounting international concerns over its nuclear drive, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said Thursday after talks among the major powers.
“We discussed at length the need for Iran to take action urgently as we considered the Iranian nuclear issue,” Ashton told reporters after the talks with the foreign ministers of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and United States.
The meeting took place after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded the international community set “a clear red line” to stop Iran getting a nuclear bomb, in a speech at the UN headquarters.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, who acts as negotiator with Iran for the international powers, said she updated the foreign ministers on her talks with Iran’s chief negotiator Saeed Jalili in Istanbul last week.
“I will from that meeting now be in touch with Iran to continue this process,” Ashton added.
France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the meeting had been short because the major powers were united in the Iran crisis.
“We agreed that the main word is ‘unity,’ unity and to exert pressure,” Fabius told reporters.
“What is very important is that the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany are completely united on the behavior we have to have towards Iran.”
