Print

Mail

wiki links

Ahmadinejad drops visit ahead of UN vote on sanctions

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad canceled a trip to New York to address the UN Security Council before its scheduled vote yesterday to impose further sanctions against his country for refusing to stop enriching uranium, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

After intense last-minute negotiations, the six world powers that drafted the resolution overcame concerns from several council members on Friday and expected it to be approved unanimously when it comes to a vote, said French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere.

"We will be united again on this important resolution," de La Sabliere told reporters after a closed-door Security Council meeting. "We hope that Iran will reflect on this resolution and make the right choice."

The sanctions would ban Iranian arms exports and freeze the assets of 28 additional individuals and organizations involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programs. About a third of those are linked to the Revolutionary Guard, an elite military corps.

Alejandro Wolff, the acting US ambassador to the UN, called the sanctions "serious measures that underscore the severity with which the council views rejection of its resolutions."

He warned that if Iran continues to defy Security Council demands "we will continue to add measures and continue to up the pressure."

Ahmadinejad said earlier this month he wanted to take his case for pursuing nuclear power to the Security Council himself. On Friday, a council diplomat said the Iranian president would arrive in New York at 1am the following day, just hours before the council was expected to meet.

But Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini told Iranian state TV later in the day that the trip had been scrapped because of "America's obstruction in issuing visas" to the Iranian delegation that was to travel to New York.

Hosseini said that instead of Ahmadinejad, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki would attend the Security Council meeting and "explain Iran's position regarding its nuclear activities."

"Due to open failure by the United States to issue visas for members of the Iranian delegation accompanying President Ahmadinejad and the air crew, American authorities have effectively prevented President Ahmadinejad from attending the UN Security Council meeting," Hosseini said.

Mohammad Mir Ali Mohammadi, press secretary for Iran's mission to the UN, said that the US did not deliver a visa to the US Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, in time for Ahmadinejad to pick it up before flying to New York for yesterday's session.

The US State Department, however, insisted it had approved and issued 75 visas for Ahmadinejad and his delegation.
This story has been viewed 1643 times.