A Tale of Wasted Opportunities: The EU, Turkey and Iran's Nuclear Issue

Of the many negative side-effects of Turkey's stalled EU accession process, EU-Turkish non-cooperation on Iran's nuclear issue is amongst the most lamentable. Iran's controversial nuclear ambitions are a source of concern both in Ankara and European capitals, and yet the courses of action chosen by EU and Turkish leaders have been far away from one another. Turkey remains unconvinced that the combination of incentives and sanctions adopted by the EU3+3 - the group of EU and world powers negotiating with Iran, represented by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton - will ever bring results. The EU, in turn, maintains that Turkey's diplomacy-only approach is delusional.

Paper produced within the framework of the project Turkey, Europe and the World. Publ. in IAI Research Paper 9.