ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the evolving role of the European Union in the Iranian nuclear talks and questions its significance under international relations theories. Indeed, the European Union hesitated for a long time about coercive diplomacy, essentially implementing United Nations sanctions. So far, the European Economic Community that preceded the European Union, was only a minor international actor. Targets and matters of sanctions by the United Nations and by the European Union, in the case of the Iranian nuclear crisis, do not differ fundamentally. But the lack of positive reaction by the Iranian government, as alleged by the United Nations and the European Union, led to increasing the number of targets and constraints in successive sanctions. In the European Union, legal acts relating to external policy are divided between Common Foreign and Security Policy decisions and common positions, and European Union legislation.
