Security Council Discusses Iran Nulcear Program

The United States, Britain and France have hinted that Iran has one last chance to negotiate if it wants to avoid further sanctions for its controversial nuclear program.

The UN Security Council held a meeting on Iran's nuclear program Friday.

The most recent report of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, noted that while Tehran had cooperated with the agency on many levels, there were still crucial outstanding issues.

John Sawers, the UK ambassador to the UN, said his country favors negotiations over sanctions and listed three steps Iran must take:

"First, that Iran suspends all of its enrichment-related and reprocessing activities… Second, that Iran implements fully the additional protocol and the additional measures that the IAEA has requested….Third, that Iran resolves outstanding issues of concern to the IAEA through delivering fully on all the issues which remain outstanding under the work."

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Washington is hoping negotiations work out, but he also stressed the need for all countries to assure current sanctions are being fully implemented.

"The mutually satisfactory negotiated solution remains open to Iran. At the same time, all member states must implement robustly their obligations under UN Security Council Resolution 1737, 1747 and 1803 as well as other pertinent resolutions."

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will travel to Tehran on Saturday to present a package of incentives and penalties in the name of the US, Germany, Britain, France, Russia and China.