"A new tone, but not a new course." That is the way Pierre Vimont — executive secretary general of the European External Action Service (EEAS) of the European Union and deputy to Catherine Ashton, high representative of the union for foreign affairs and security policy — describes the latest round of discussions with Iran.
Recently interviewed in Brussels, Vimont, who is in charge of developing a common external policy for the member states of the European Union (EU), looks back on the discussions that took place Oct. 15-16 in Geneva with Iran, describes the role of the EU in Syria and shares his feelings on the evolution of the situation in Egypt. He provides a clear synthesis of the major actions undertaken at the EU level to address the critical challenges of these three important Middle Eastern countries.