Six major powers papered over differences on Iran on Friday and circulated a new UN Security Council draft resolution that reaffirms existing UN sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program.
The terse, three-paragraph text also called on Iran “to fully comply, without delay, with its obligations [under UN resolutions] and to meet the requirement of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] board of governors.”
The draft was circulated after foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the US — plus Germany agreed on its wording earlier in the day.
The Security Council has slapped three rounds of sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, a process which can be used to make the fissile material for a nuclear bomb.
The US and its European allies have pushed for new sanctions against Tehran but have run into resistance from Russia and China.
Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin on Friday again dismissed talk of new sanctions, saying “more discussions are necessary” with Tehran and “there’s still room for diplomacy.”
Diplomats said after their meeting on Iran that the new draft would not be voted upon until this week.
“We are very hopeful that there will be unanimity” on the text, his French counterpart Jean-Maurice Ripert said, adding that Iran faces “more isolation” if it fails to comply.
The six powers have been trying to convince Iran to abandon uranium enrichment amid Western fears that Tehran is seeking to build an atomic bomb.
Friday’s meeting gained new urgency after the IAEA reported last week that Tehran continued to defy international pressure to cooperate with its investigation. Iran insists its nuclear program is strictly aimed at producing civilian energy.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomed the six countries’ agreement on the text as “an important sign of unity on Iran” and noted the draft did not rule out future sanctions.
“The position of the international community remains that we want to say firstly, that we are ready to cooperate with Iran, but secondly, only if Iran fulfills its commitments to the international community,” he told reporters.
The ministers had initially planned to meet on Thursday to weigh new sanctions against Iran.
But that meeting was called off after Moscow complained Washington sought to “punish” it, apparently over Georgia.
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