EU urges Iran to 'grasp hand extended to it'

The European Union today urged Iran to “grasp the hand extended to it” and return to international negotiations on its suspect nuclear programme.

In a statement issued in Vienna by foreign minister Ursula Plassnik of Austria, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, the 25-nation bloc said a resumption of talks “could also facilitate the development of a perspective for the future after decades of ’non-relations’ between Iran and the United States”.