The European Union's foreign ministers were to take stock Friday of international efforts to get Iran to resolve concerns over its nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency has referred Iran to the U.N. Security Council. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan insisted this week that "negotiations must continue" with Iran but as the EU foreign ministers opened two days of informal talks, a senior EU official cautioned sanctions may lay ahead. "At a later stage, sanctions of some kind can't be excluded. Let's wait and see what the Security Council does," the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana was quoted as saying by the Austrian daily Der Standard in an interview published Friday. "We are only at the beginning. I don't exclude sanctions but it depends on the type of sanctions. We certainly don't want to target the Iranian people," Solana was quoted as saying. There was always time for diplomacy, Solana was quoted as saying, noting that the Security Council had a tough task ahead. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy _ who was also expected to attend the Salzburg gathering _ urged Iran on Friday to return rapidly to "reason" as the standoff over its nuclear program moved to the U.N. Security Council. "The hand is extended. Negotiations are possible," Douste-Blazy said on RTL radio in France. "Iran must understand that it has no choice. It has the right to civilian nuclear energy, it does not have the right to something else."
