On Oct. 3, Skip to next paragraph Reuters reported that French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner in a letter to fellow EU ministers, appealed to the 27-member bloc to start exploring new sanctions now.

“These new measures, from its most important commercial partner, should have the aim of increasing the pressure on Iran, in particular in the financial and economic area,” he said in the letter.

“Initially, we could add new entities, in particular in the banking sector, and new individuals to the existing European lists of asset freezes and visa bans.”

He urged EU foreign ministers to debate the next steps at an October 15 meeting in Luxembourg.
“Time is against us, because each day Iran gets closer to mastering enrichment technology, in other words to having a de facto military nuclear capacity,” Kouchner said.