Tehran, February 01: The door is open to Iran to engage in serious and meaningful negotiations [over Tehran’s nuclear program], and I confirm the EU’s commitment to continue to work for a diplomatic solution, in accordance with the dual-track approach.”
President of the European Council has called for a diplomatic approach to resolve the disputes over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program, while expressing his support for the bloc’s recent sanctions on Iran.
“The door is open to Iran to engage in serious and meaningful negotiations [over Tehran’s nuclear program], and I confirm the EU’s commitment to continue to work for a diplomatic solution, in accordance with the dual-track approach,” Van Rompuy told a press conference at the end of an informal EU summit on Monday.
This comes while he stressed that EU leaders “endorsed the restrictive measures against Iran in the energy, trade and financial sector.”
The official further claimed that the sanctions are not directed against the Iranian people.
On January 23, EU foreign ministers reached an agreement to impose an immediate ban on oil imports from Iran over the country’s nuclear program as of July 1.
The 27-member bloc agreed to ban the imports of oil as well as petroleum products from the major OPEC member state and freeze the assets of the Central Bank of Iran across the EU.
The EU also imposed a ban on the sale of diamonds, gold and other precious metals to Iran.
Iran and the P5+1 — Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States plus Germany — held two rounds of multifaceted talks in Geneva in December 2010 and in the Turkish city of Istanbul last January.
The United States, Israel and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program and have used this pretext to impose four rounds of sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Iran has refuted the allegations, arguing that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Tehran is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful use.
——Agencies