OTHER BUSINESS:EUROPEAN UNION leaders have imposed new sanctions on Iran, including curbs on equipment sales for its vital oil and gas industries, in protest at Tehran's disputed nuclear programme.
EU leaders meeting in Brussels, including Taoiseach Brian Cowen, said tougher action was “inevitable”. “The [EU] deeply regrets that Iran has not taken the many opportunities which have been offered to it to remove the concerns of the international community over the nature of the Iranian nuclear programme.”
Iranian shipping and air freight companies will be banned from operating in EU territories, new visa bans and asset freezes will be enforced “especially on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard”. Banks and insurance companies will also be targeted by the sanctions, the leaders said in a final communique.
The EU is ready “to work for a diplomatic solution” of the crisis, it said, while it called on Tehran “to demonstrate willingness to build the confidence of the international community. What is needed is a serious negotiation about Iran’s nuclear programme”.
Russia criticised the tougher EU sanctions, which go further than those agreed at the United Nations. “We are extremely disappointed that neither the United States nor the European Union is heeding our calls to refrain from such steps,” Russian news agencies quoted deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.
Meanwhile, Iceland was given approval to begin talks on joining the union, but both the United Kingdom and the Netherlands made it clear they would insist that Iceland compensate them for having to pay €3.8 billion compensation to depositors who lost money after the Icesave bank collapsed.
The Icelandic government has agreed to pay the money, but faces domestic opposition because the agreement would see the debt being repaid over 15 years. It has been estimated that it could cost Icelandic households almost €50,000.
Dutch prime minister Jan-Peter Balkenende, who adopted a tough line on the issue in preparation for yesterday’s summit, is understood to have told his fellow leaders: “We won’t block negotiations, but there are hard demands Iceland has to meet.”
Meanwhile, EU leaders congratulated Estonia on the progress it had made in restoring stability to its public finances and welcomed the proposal from the European Commission that it should join the euro on January 1st next year.
Following indications from Israel that it will relax the Gaza blockade, EU high representative Catherine Ashton said: “We’ve said there should be a change from a list of goods that are allowed into Gaza, a reversal of that, to a list of goods that are not allowed, in order to make sure that many, many more goods can get into Gaza to enable people to reconstruct their homes, to build schools, to replace infrastructure and also to allow people to get on with their ordinary lives.”
