Rome, January 03: The European Union must press Iran to respect human rights but without burning all bridges with the country, Italy’s foreign minister said Saturday, stressing Tehran’s role in negotiating world conflicts.
“When a regime shoots at its own people, it sinks to the lowest possible level”, Franco Frattini told the newspaper Corriere della Sera in an interview.
On Sunday, security forces used teargas, batons and eventually live rounds to push back thousands of demonstrators. Authorities confirmed eight people died but rejected opposition charges that they were killed by security forces.
“Italy asks Europe to be actively involved” on the question of human rights, he said, and the European Union, under Spanish presidency since January 1, should send a message to Iran because “basic liberties are at stake”.
However, the foreign minister stressed that Iran could play an important role in the stabilisation of Afghanistan and negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
“We must not burn every bridge (with Iran) because Iran is a key figure for the Afghan crisis, for the crisis in the Middle East and over the very sensitive nuclear question”, Frattini said.
Frattini cited Iran’s connections with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Syria, making the country “decisive” in the region.
He also said Tehran was a “threat to Israel and many other Arab countries, with the possibility of having nuclear weapons”.
“We must act so that Iran has a positive influence (on all these issues), so that it is a strength, it is respected, and not a concern”, the minister said. “Iran has the right to be a civil nuclear power, not a military one”.
Frattini said sanctions should “avoid those that are connected with Iranian national pride” and added that Italy, the top European trade partner with Iran, has frozen all new economic initiatives.
The foreign minister ruled out military action against Iran should sanctions not work.
“Just thinking about it would be enough to set off a world disaster”, he said, adding a military response was not an option “even in the event of a civil war”.
—Agencies