EU set to target Iran with extra sanctions

The European Union is set to boost new UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme with extra measures, notably in the key energy sector, diplomats said yesterday.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday agreed new sanctions against Iran, expanding an arms embargo and barring the country from sensitive activities such as uranium mining.

If a draft text is endorsed by the 27 EU nations Europe will go further, particularly in "key sectors of the oil and gas industry with prohibition of new investment, transfers of technologies, equipment and services".

Iran has the world's second largest reserves of natural gas and is Opec's second largest oil exporter.

Global energy majors have come under increased inter-national pressure over their activities in the country.

In Brussels yesterday US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that, according to latest intelligence, Iran could have enough enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb within three years.

Tehran maintains its uranium enrichment programme is for peaceful civilian purposes, while Western nations have charged that Iran is covertly seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

But the EU draft statement is clear that Iran's uranium enrichment has "no plausible civilian application".

The new UN measures authorise states to conduct high-sea inspections of vessels believed to be ferrying banned items to Iran and add 40 entities to a list of people and groups subject to travel restrictions and financial sanctions.

The EU's "accompanying measures" to the UN sanctions will be discussed by European foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday then by the heads of state and government in Brussels Thursday.

In the trade area these will focus on products which could be useful to the military and supplementary restrictions on trade insurance.

The draft EU proposals also foresee freezing the activities of additional Iranian banks and "restrictions on banking and insurance".

In the transport sector, the sanctions would apply in particular to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line (IRISL), which the United States has accused of providing logistical support to the Iranian defence ministry, as well as air cargo.

Finally the EU envisages new visa bans and assets freezes against Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.

All the new measures, both complying with and additional to the agreed UN measures, are included in the text and are to be formally approved by the EU leaders in Brussels.

"More discussion is still needed" on the paper, a diplomat from a major EU nation said Friday, even though the 27 member states have been discussing additional measures for months.