Brussels (AP) – EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana warned Iran Wednesday that the European Union wanted to see progress in international negotiations over its nuclear program or risk new sanctions by the end of the year.
Solana, speaking to EU lawmakers at the European Parliament, said talks with the U.N. nuclear energy agency in Vienna and talks he is conducting with a top Iranian official needed to move ahead.
"We can’t wait forever, and we have to see those negotiations are moving ahead … there is a risk of more sanctions and it is a real risk, we have to get that across," Solana told the EU assembly’s foreign affairs committee.
Solana said he was trying to arrange fresh talks with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani as soon as possible with other meetings to follow.
The EU foreign policy chief and the chief U.N. nuclear official Mohamed ElBaradei are to present reports in mid-November to the U.N. Security Council in New York as to whether Tehran has cooperated to answer questions about its disputed nuclear program. The EU, US and others say the program is being used to develop nuclear weapons.
"The situation is not good as you know, it’s very difficult," Solana said. "There is a lot of pressure from different quarters, from the EU and elsewhere" for action on Iran.