The US may act on its own, possibly by tightening economic sanctions, if the UN Security Council fails to move forcefully to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the US ambassador to the UN said on Thursday.
The US could strengthen its own sanctions, which were loosened during 1990s, and expand international efforts to halt the transport of nuclear materials and other technologies that could lead to the production of atomic weapons, US ambassador John Bolton said.
"It would be simply prudent planning to be looking at other options," Bolton told a group of reporters in Washington.
Other countries could also move to financially isolate Iran, he said.
Bolton cited resistance from Russia and China on the Security Council as a reason to consider other possibilities for resolving the dispute over Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program, but reaffirmed the US desire to continue working at the Security Council for now.
The Security Council last month issued an appeal to Iran to comply with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolutions that require Iran to come clean on its nuclear activities, but only after three weeks of difficult negotiations.
The UK, France and Germany, the most influential countries in the EU, have generally supported the US effort to halt Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Bolton said if Iran did not comply with the statement by the end of this month -- the deadline set by the Security Council -- the US will seek a legally binding resolution requiring Iran to comply.
If Iran does not meet that demand, then the US will pursue a second resolution imposing international sanctions "of some kind" against the Islamic republic, Bolton said.
Bolton, in his previous position in the US State Department, negotiated the Proliferation Security Initiative, which consists of dozens of countries coordinating the effort to stop shipments of nuclear materials or other technologies that can lead to the development of weapons of mass destruction.
The US could work within the initiative to keep Iran from pursuing weapons, Bolton said.
Iran says its nuclear activities are purely for producing energy, but the US insists the program is also being used to build a bomb.
US President George W. Bush has not ruled out the use of military force to keep Iran from acquiring nuclear arms, but has pledged to resolve the dispute diplomatically.
The UK, France and Germany, known collectively as the EU-3, have led negotiations with Iran aimed at resolving the crisis, but negotiations ended without a solution last year and Iran in January announced that it would resume uranium enrichment, a step the could lead to building weapons.
The March 29 Security Council statement gave Iran 30 days to stop enriching uranium, but did not outline the next steps if Iran fails to comply.
The statement came after contentious negotiations between the US and Russia, which has been reluctant to come down too hard on Iran.
"The obvious difficulty that we had in taking three weeks ... to get a presidential statement that simply says to Iran, `Obey the IAEA resolutions,' tells us something about the difficulty on the road ahead that we will face at the end of this month," Bolton said, referring to the deadline.
The Clinton administration lifted restrictions on US imports of Iranian pistachios, caviar and rugs in the 1990s in an effort to support democratic reform in Iran.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS