daily press briefing by french foreign ministry spokesman on french efforts to sanction iran
FRENCH MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
September 4, 2007
[Please note that only the original French text issued by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs may be considered official.]
Q - Last Saturday, Le Monde ran a story indicating that France agreed to unilaterally impose sanctions on Iran, outside of the UN framework. Can you give us any information on that subject?
As long as the Iranians don’t suspend their sensitive activities, we would like to see additional sanctions imposed on Iran, in accordance with Security Council resolutions. Our priority is to see these sanctions adopted by the Security Council.
There are, however, sanctions outside of the Security Council. Within the European framework, for example, the EU has decided on measures in addition to the ones provided within the Security Council framework, notably the addition of new individuals and entities to the list of those who are subject to the freezing of assets and visa bans, a general weapons embargo, and an embargo on additional dual-use items.
So there are sanctions that go beyond those that exist in the Security Council framework.
Q - But in the Le Monde article, they weren’t talking about the EU or its sanctions, but American or French-British sanctions.
We work within the UN framework as a matter of priority. But if Iran doesn’t respond satisfactorily to our demand for suspending activities linked to enrichment and reprocessing, we must draw the consequences in our discussions on sanctions./.
Embassy of France, September 4, 2007