(17 Jul 2012) STORYLINE
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague warned on Tuesday that if international negotiations with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme failed to make progress, economic sanctions against Tehran could be intensified.
"We have brought into force very wide-ranging sanctions on Iran. Without progress in these negotiations we will intensify those sanctions in the months ahead," said Hague, speaking in the Jordanian capital of Amman, after talks with Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.
Hague spoke nearly two weeks after a meeting in Istanbul, led by nuclear expert Stephan Klement on behalf of European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, during which Iranian and international technical experts exchanged details on proposals to end the standoff over Tehran's nuclear programme.
The experts came from the six powers - Britain, the United States, the European Union, China, France, Germany and Russia - involved in the talks and collectively known as the E3+3.
The talks followed three rounds of negotiations between Iran and six world powers and none of the gatherings have been able to produce a breakthrough.
Iran is already under four sets of United Nations sanctions and measures levied by the United States and tried unsuccessfully to use the Moscow talks to get the sanctions eased.
An EU ban on Iranian oil came into full effect July 1, and analysts expect the sanctions to cut the crude exports of Iran, OPEC's second-largest producer.
The EU embargo, combined with the fresh measures that prohibit the world's banks from completing oil transactions with Iranian banks, significantly ratchet up the pressure on an Iranian economy already squeezed by previous rounds of sanctions.
"We are determined to prevent nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, and the Iranians should not doubt our resolve in our determination to prevent that coming about," Hague said.
The West accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons. Iran denies those allegations.
Iranian officials have earlier said they are organising a consortium of private companies to bypass the embargo, without specifying exactly how this will work.
Iran says it can always find buyers for oil.

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