European Union foreign ministers called on Friday for more dialogue with Iran before any talk of sanctions after Tehran defied a UN deadline to stop sensitive nuclear work. At an informal meeting near Finland's border with Russia, ministers said there was still time for more diplomacy despite US pressure for a rapid move to impose punitive sanctions.
"For the EU, diplomacy remains the Number One way forward," Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country holds the 25-nation bloc's rotating presidency, told a news conference. "The time is always for diplomacy. We need patience, we need a lot of patience, and we need clarity," Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik told reporters.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he hoped to meet Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, early next week to seek a clear answer to major power proposals for broad co-operation if Tehran halts uranium enrichment.
He insisted Iran did not have indefinite time to suspend its nuclear fuel programme, which the West suspects is aimed at making a bomb. The next meeting "or couple of meetings" would show whether there was a basis to start formal negotiations.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said it was too soon to talk of sanctions, which was up to the UN Security Council, but there was no contradiction in talking to Iran while working to build consensus at the United Nations.
Solana declined repeatedly to talk of sanctions, saying: "I am the person who is going to talk to Iran soon, so I don't want to put myself in a position of failure."
Diplomats said the emphasis on diplomacy was designed to show European public opinion, as well as sceptical Security Council members Russia and China, that Europe was going the extra mile to seek a negotiated solution.
NO SIGN: French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy welcomed Iran's declared wish to negotiate but stressed the Europeans were not dropping the key condition for opening formal talks.
Swedish Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson told reporters: "It is very important that Iran understands they have a historic opportunity to get back into the fold of international co-operation."
Iran sent a complex 21-page reply last week, which Western officials said evaded the international community's demand to halt making nuclear fuel.
Since then, the Islamic Republic's leaders have defiantly proclaimed they will not give up what they call the inalienable right to nuclear technology, which they insist is only to generate electricity for the oil-rich nation. Diplomats said Iran's tactics were to fudge the deadline, and try to divide Russia and China from the West and the Europeans from the United States by dangling the possibility of a negotiated freeze on enrichment at some later date.
Among Washington's closest allies, Britain made clear it too would prefer another attempt at talks. Only the Czech Republic sounded a dissenting note in urging a quick move to sanctions.
"Yes, the time has come," Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda told reporters.