Iran says Europe is no longer qualified to hold nuclear talks due to its meddling with the post-election protests in the country, with Sweden, as the new EU presidency, calling up officials from the 27-member bloc to discuss the next diplomatic move.
The EU has played a significant part in international efforts to make Tehran comply with the world's rules on nuclear power. Three EU states - Germany, France, and the UK - have been leading the negotiations along with the US, Russia and China.
But Iran's military chief of staff Major-General Hassan Firouzabadi on Wednesday (I July) said that the alleged "interference" of Europeans in the riots following the June presidential election means the bloc has "lost its qualification to hold nuclear talks."The statement came after Tehran's action against local employees of the UK embassy, accused by Iranians of meddling with the opposition protests.
Nine persons were detained over the weekend but most of them released on Monday and Wednesday. Two British staff members are still in jail.
In a bid to protest the handling of the situation, other EU states are also considering withdrawing their ambassadors from Tehran, with Britain pressing hard for a joint gesture while Germany and Italy, as Iran's key trade partners, prefer to keep on speaking terms with the country.
"It is easier to get everyone in the EU to agree on tough language on Iran, as happened last weekend, rather than take tough action," one British diplomat said, according to the Financial Times.
Just two days into its six-month chairmanship of the European Union, Sweden has called on member states' senior officials to discuss the issue on Thursday (2 July).
Speaking to journalists at the official opening of the presidency, Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeld made clear that Europe wants to support the democratic forces in Iran but also avoid isolating the country from the rest of the world. "That's the balance we need to strike," he said.
Tehran's political unrest broke out following the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on 12 June. Iranian supporters of his rival, opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, argue that the poll had been rigged and demand its complete re-run.
Iran's police chief Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moghaddam said that 20 people were killed and more than 1,000 arrested in the wave of protests, AFP reported on Wednesday.
http://euobserver.com/9/28404
JPTF 2009/07/03
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