EU states could pursue Iran sanctions

Saariselka, Finland: A UN resolution on new sanctions against Iran may not be ready until June and if a vote on it fails, European states could take unilateral measures instead, French and Finnish ministers said yesterday.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said France remained determined to get UN backing for sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear programme, but indicated that the support of Russia and China among the five permanent Security Council members was some way off.

"We are ... talking and talking, trying to get an agreement by negotiation and at the same time working on sanctions. I believe that yes, before June it will be possible, but I'm not so sure," Kouchner told reporters during a foreign ministers' retreat in northern Finland.

"Before June I hope, but who am I to hope or decide?" he said, pointing out that France had originally hoped to get a UN sanctions package prepared in February, when it was chairing the Security Council.

If the United States, Britain, France and Germany — the four leading the drive for sanctions that are expected to target Iranian banks and senior members of the Revolutionary Guard — fail to secure UN backing, the EU looks likely to join the United States in imposing unilateral sanctions.

Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, who is hosting a weekend gathering of foreign ministers from the EU and Turkey in Lapland, said on Saturday there was "consensus enough" in the EU for unilateral sanctions.