By Country / Iran
U.S., EU Renew Calls For Iran To Suspend Enrichment
April 10, 2007
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack (file photo) (official website)
The statements came after President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on April 9 announced that Iran is now capable of producing nuclear fuel on an industrial scale through enrichment.
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McComack said Iran's decision not to halt enrichment-related activities would have increasing "costs for the Iranian people," such as lost business deals due to international sanctions.
"They have decided not to, at this point, stop their enrichment-related activities, and that comes along with costs for the Iranian people and that's rather unfortunate, because it doesn't have to be that way," McCormack said. "There are opportunity costs for now -- business deals that don't get done, for trade that doesn't happen, for investment that doesn't happen."
Spokespeople for the European Union urged Iran to halt enrichment, and said the bloc remained committed to the two sets of United Nations sanctions that have been imposed on Iran over its refusal to halt such work.
(AP, BBC)