Chirac: Iran risks sanctions over nuclear threat
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-22 14:41

Iran could face sanctions if negotiations with Europe fail to eliminate the threat of nuclear proliferation, French President Jacques Chirac said in an interview published Friday.

Chirac said the issue would have to move to the U.N. Security Council if the talks failed.

"I hope that (the European negotiations with Iran) will succeed and eliminate the danger of the proliferation of nuclear weapons," Chirac told the Haaretz daily.

"If this does not prove to be the case, it will, of course, be necessary to transfer the handling (of the Iranian problem) to the UN Security Council," he said.

Israel has been urging Western countries to take a tough stance against Iran. Chirac spoke ahead of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's state visit to France next week.

Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday his country would not pursue atomic weapons but would also not submit to international pressure to abandon its nuclear program. Some Europeans have worried that Ahmadinejad - who won election last month with the backing of hard-liners in Iran's Islamic regime_ could take a tougher stand in negotiations than the reform administration he is replacing.

Before his campaign, Ahmadinejad had criticized concessions by Iran, including the freezing of parts of the nuclear program, though since his election he has said he will continue talks with the Europeans.

Britain, France and Germany are trying to persuade Iran to permanently freeze it's enrichment activities, while the United States accuses Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran says it's program aims only to produce energy and voluntarily froze them in November under threat of U.S.-backed United Nations Security Council sanctions. But it says it reserves the right to restart them at any time.

Close