The European Union members agreed to impose new sanctions against Iran after Teheran refused to halt its nuclear program. The set of sanctions approved by the EU members includes visa bans that will reportedly target senior members affiliated with Iran's nuclear program.

Although the western powers urged Iran more than once to stop its uranium enrichment program, the Middle Eastern country maintains that its atomic program is peaceful and has only industrial purposes.

However, the United States along with the 27-member European Union are convinced that Teheran wants to build atomic weapons and are prepared to take steps in order to prevent something like that from happening.

The EU is prepared to offer economic incentives to Iran. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana presented the incentives during a talks session with the Iranian officials this month. Unfortunately, the meeting didn’t prove to be a success and Iran is continuing it controversial nuclear program.

"I hope to have a response from Tehran soon on the issues we have spoken [about], which have been very important. Our presence here signifies that we care about good relations with Iran, but for that, the question of nuclear [activities] has to be clearly resolved," Solana said.

The EU will publish the list of names of those affected by the sanctions on Tuesday. Bank Melli, which has branches in Paris and Hamburg and a unit in London, would face an asset freeze under the moves, while the visa bans would target "very senior experts" inside Iran's nuclear and ballistic programs.

The incentive package offered to Iran was agreed upon by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany last month. The list of sanctions it’s actually a revised version of one rejected by Iran in 2006.