EU — Council conclusions on Iran’s nuclear programme 3029th FOREIGN AFFAIRS Council meeting

Brus­sels, 26 July 2010
The Coun­cil adopt­ed the fol­low­ing con­clu­sions:
“The Coun­cil recalls that the Euro­pean Coun­cil has repeat­ed­ly under­lined its deep­en­ing con­cerns about Iran’s nuclear pro­gramme and in that regard, wel­comed the adop­tion of UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 1929 intro­duc­ing new restric­tive mea­sures against Iran.

In accor­dance with the Euro­pean Coun­cil Dec­la­ra­tion of 17 June, the Coun­cil has today adopt­ed a Deci­sion imple­ment­ing the mea­sures con­tained in UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 1929 as well as accom­pa­ny­ing mea­sures, with a view to sup­port­ing the res­o­lu­tion of all out­stand­ing con­cerns regard­ing Iran’s devel­op­ment of sen­si­tive tech­nolo­gies in sup­port of its nuclear and mis­sile pro­grammes, through negotiation.

The Coun­cil notes that the Coun­cil Deci­sion pro­vides a com­pre­hen­sive and robust pack­age of mea­sures in the areas of trade, finan­cial ser­vices, ener­gy, trans­port as well as addi­tion­al des­ig­na­tions for visa ban and asset freeze, in par­tic­u­lar for Iran­ian banks, the Islam­ic Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Islam­ic Repub­lic of Iran Ship­ping Lines (IRISL). These mea­sures cor­re­spond to the areas iden­ti­fied by the Euro­pean Coun­cil in June.

The Coun­cil again reaf­firms the long­stand­ing com­mit­ment of the Euro­pean Union to work for a diplo­mat­ic solu­tion of the Iran­ian nuclear issue. The Coun­cil wel­comes and ful­ly sup­ports the efforts of the EU High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy to resume talks in this regard. The Coun­cil calls on Iran to seize this oppor­tu­ni­ty to allay the con­cerns of the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty about its nuclear pro­gramme and agree on a con­crete date for talks with the EU High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive, togeth­er with the six countries. 

The Coun­cil reaf­firms the valid­i­ty of the June 2008 pro­pos­als made to Iran. The aim of the EU is to achieve a com­pre­hen­sive and long-term set­tle­ment which would rebuild inter­na­tion­al con­fi­dence in the exclu­sive­ly peace­ful nature of Iran’s nuclear pro­gramme, while respect­ing Iran’s legit­i­mate rights to the peace­ful uses of nuclear ener­gy under the NPT. The Coun­cil recalls that the EU’s objec­tive remains to engage in mean­ing­ful nego­ti­a­tions about the Iran­ian nuclear pro­gramme and oth­er issues of mutu­al con­cern with the ulti­mate goal of estab­lish­ing a com­pre­hen­sive rela­tion­ship between the EU and Iran, involv­ing coop­er­a­tion in all fields (eco­nom­ic, nuclear ener­gy for peace­ful pur­pos­es, polit­i­cal and secu­ri­ty) and ben­e­fit­ing both sides.” 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union 

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