Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

After nine years of what can only be described as stonewalling by Iran, the willingness of the new government there to engage seriously has been very welcome. The interim plan of action, which was agreed in November, was an important achievement and created a context in which this long running issue can be resolved. The hard work of converting it into an agreement and settling this issue is now underway and negotiations are at a critical stage.

All I can say is that the Iranian side has continued to engage seriously and with a will to reach agreement but we do not yet know if Iran will be able to accept the essential compromises to reach an agreement and we know that the E3+3 side is very open to an agreement. We also know that there are elements in Iran which may be unwilling to reach an agreement, so we and our EU partners are doing what we can to encourage Iran to continue on the new course and to reach agreement.

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