In These New Times

PressTV

3rd December, 2011

It is the responsibility of European countries to hold talks with the Islamic Republic of Iran on key issues of divergence, Fischer wrote in an article published in the Swiss Le Temps daily, IRNA reported Saturday.

Fischer warned against any act of aggression against the Islamic Republic, stressing that Iran is a powerful country which cannot be brought to its knees by military actions or sanctions.

On Thursday, foreign ministers of the EU imposed fresh sanctions against 39 Iranian individuals and 141 companies in a bid to hinder Iran’s peaceful nuclear program. The ministers also claimed that they would keep working on developing additional measures which would target Iran’s oil industry.

The US, Israel, and some of their allies accuse Iran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program and have used this pretext to push for the imposition of sanctions on Tehran.

Iran, however, refutes such allegations as “baseless” and maintains that, as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has every right to acquire and develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.