Mr. David Cooney:

Iran was mentioned. Again, this was an unfortunate situation. Nobody wants it to be that way, certainly in the West. The concerns about Iran's nuclear programme are not confined to the US and Israel. They are very real and they are shared; we share them. The work of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, has given rise to serious and justified concerns. The international community, which is grouped in this three-plus-three formation, has tried extremely hard to engage genuinely with the Iranian authorities to seek to make some progress on this, and it has not been forthcoming. The sanctions have been applied very much as a last resort and we, the international community, have made every effort to try to apply them in a way that will not harm the Iranian community. It is very difficult to apply sanctions that have no impact on people on the ground, particularly when one has to keep winding them up to a higher level because one is getting no response.

There are elections in the next few days. We sincerely hope they will lead to a more enlightened approach on the part of the Iranian Administration, because the long-term situation is extremely worrying. The last thing one wants in the Middle East is another state with nuclear weapons. The international community is very much trying to avoid that, not just because we do not want another such state but because there are some in the region who have made it very clear they will not tolerate that and nobody knows what the repercussions would be. At all costs we want to avoid military action and see Iran fully re-integrated into the international community as a country that is co-operating on nuclear policies and is free from sanctions.