Europe must take a firmer line with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday at the start of a working meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
"We need to exert pressure on them. We're not talking about political spin but about the spinning of centrifuges," he said in remarks communicated by his office.
"It must stop and I think it is up to Europe to join the United States and Israel and all the other elements in the international community in demanding a halt to Iran's nuclear programme," he said in what appeared to be a rebuke.
Ashton's visit comes just six days after the election of moderate Hassan Rowhani as Iran's new president in what analysts have said could sooth tensions with the West over Tehran's nuclear programme.