Brussels, 26/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - During his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September, French President François Hollande said that France was in favour of new sanctions against Iran “not to punish the great Iranian people, but to say to the leaders that this is enough and that the negotiations should be taken up before it is too late” (see EUROPE 10695). Saying that one of the urgent issues was to fight against the “most serious of threats” - in other words the proliferation of nuclear arms, Hollande reproached Iran for freeing itself from the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and for not respecting “either its word or its resolutions”. He also wanted a negotiation to take place with fixed stages but “once again the negotiation has failed”. “Iran's full cooperation is important”, said Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev, stressing that Tehran must be transparent in terms of its nuclear activity, and must respect the UN resolutions. American President Barack Obama for his part said that the time to regulate the question by negotiation “is not unlimited” and that the USA would do what it must to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear arms (our translation throughout). (CG/transl.fl)