EU foreign ministers will approve tighter sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear activity today, with steps to block oil and gas investment and curtail Tehran's refining and natural gas capability.
The measures go beyond sanctions imposed by the United Nations last month and mirror steps taken by the United States in recent weeks to apply extra pressure on Tehran and get it back to negotiations over its uranium enrichment programme.
A declaration prepared before the meeting showed that as well as adopting harsher sanctions, the foreign ministers would call on Iran to resume talks over its nuclear activities, which Western powers say are aimed at producing atomic weapons.
Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche is in Brussels for a meeting of the General Affairs Council as well as a meeting of foreign affairs ministers, at which the sanctions will be discussed.
"This is increased pressure on Iran to enter into negotiations about their whole nuclear programme," British foreign secretary William Hague told reporters as he arrived for the meeting in Brussels.
"I hope Iran takes from this message that European nations are open to negotiations about the nuclear programme, but if they don't respond, we will intensify the pressure."
While EU ministers were expected to approve the extra sanctions later today, the measures will not legally come into force until they are published in the European Union's official journal tomorrow or Wednesday, diplomats said.
"The annex is extremely detailed and sets out precisely which Iranian entities -- banks, insurance companies, shipping and cargo lines - are blocked," one diplomat said. "Once it's published, there is a legal obligation to comply."
As well as further limiting the activities of Iranian trading banks and insurers, including limits on money transfers to Iran, the sanctions are designed to prohibit new investment in and technical assistance to Iran's "refining, liquefaction and liquefied natural gas" sectors, EU documents show.
Iran denies its nuclear programme is aimed at producing weapons, saying that it is for energy and medical purposes.
The broadened sanctions are intended to exert strong financial pressure on Iran, which is the world's fifth largest crude oil exporter but has little refining capability.
Diplomats have also acknowledged, however, that the impact of the sanctions will depend on steps to ensure compliance.
Traders said this month Iran was depending more on friendly countries for fuel supplies because of the sanctions intended to hinder its fuel imports, and was buying about half of its July gasoline imports from Turkey and the rest from Chinese sellers.
As part of its "dual-track" approach twinning sanctions and diplomacy, the EU is also hoping that Iran will agree to resume negotiations in the coming weeks.
The EU's foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, have exchanged letters in recent weeks and it looks possible that they will meet for talks as early as September, diplomats say.
However, Iran experts caution that any resumption of talks - the first negotiations with the West since October 2009 - are unlikely to produce quick results and more likely will begin a lengthy process of Iran trying to get sanctions lifted and the West seeking a moratorium on its uranium enrichment.
The Islamic Republic has said that it has an inalienable right to its own nuclear development for peaceful purposes without restrictions and this will not be negotiable.
Reuters
