Each of the permanent members of the UN Security Council has told Iran to drop plans for new nuclear activities or risk being hauled before the body for possible sanctions, the US said on Monday.
Although the US and European allies have been sending that message for weeks, China and Russia are now doing the same, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"We are working very closely with Russia, China and France and Britain on sending a clear message to the Iranians," McCormack said.
Those nations plus the US are the five permanent Security Council members. All are nuclear powers themselves and could individually veto any punishment the body might try to impose on Iran for pursuing what the US claims is a fraudulent and dangerous drive for nuclear technology.
The US is backing a stalled European effort to negotiate with Iran, and supports a separate offer from Russia to perform some of the most sensitive nuclear enrichment tasks on Iran's behalf.
Both initiatives would allow Iran to pursue legitimate civilian nuclear energy while reducing the risk that the same technology could be diverted to make weapons.
Iran says its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, while the US accuses Tehran of hiding a weapons program behind its drive for nuclear energy.
Iran has said it is ready to resume research on fuel production, which had been on hold so that a diplomatic solution to the crisis could be found.
There was no official word from Iran on Monday that it had resumed nuclear research, despite government pledges as recently as that morning that it would do so.
"Ultimately, given Iran's track record on seeking nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian program, defying the international community, bobbing and weaving, obfuscating, that we're ultimately all going to end up in the Security Council on this issue," McCormack said.
There has been no single unified communication from Security Council members to Iran, such as a formal letter of warning, US officials said.
"I think that the Chinese are perfectly capable of delivering their own messages," McCormack said.
"What we have been doing, have done and will continue to do, is to continue to work with them, work with the Russians and others so that Iran receives a clear, consistent and unmistakable message from the rest of the world," he added.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy called on Iran on Monday to immediately retract its decision to restart nuclear activities. He called Iran's intention to restart nuclear activities linked to uranium enrichment "reason for very serious concern."
"We call on Iran to go back on its decision without delay and without conditions," Douste-Blazy said.
Britain warned that the international community was ``running out of patience'' with Tehran, and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Iran had breached resolutions by the IAEA.
``There was no good reason why Iran should have taken this step if its intentions are truly peaceful and it wanted to resolve long standing international concerns,'' Straw said.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the