Iran

Answer: Modifying statements made by the Foreign Secretary is not a good career move from my point of view—[Interruption.] Not everyone agrees, necessarily. I genuinely think that the right hon. Gentleman and I are in agreement on these issues. Of course speed is important, and it is urgent that we send the strongest possible message to the Iranians, but he would agree that unity matters too. If the Iranians spot any sense of division in the international community, that could undermine the power of our message. It is worth waiting those few extra weeks if it means that we can achieve the maximum international support that we need if we are take the further economic sanctions that are so crucial.

This is an answer to the Oral question asked on Tuesday, 2 March 2010 by Lord Hague of Richmond (Conservative).

Question: At the last Foreign Office questions, the Foreign Secretary assured the House that it would not take "several months" for new UN sanctions on Iran to be agreed. That was in January; it is now March, and the US Secretary of State has said that it may take up to two months more for those sanctions to be agreed. Does he need to modify in any way what Ministers have said about that, and should we not now be galvanised, for some of the reasons that the Minister has set out, into urgently adopting new sanctions? The latest IAEA report says that Iran has amassed a dangerous stockpile of enriched uranium, and that it may be working on a nuclear warhead and have secret nuclear sites.

Secondary information