A Western proposal for fresh UN sanctions on Iran includes a call for restricting new Iranian banks abroad and urges “vigilance” against the Islamic Republic’s central bank, diplomats said on Friday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, Western diplomats familiar with negotiations on the draft proposal — which Washington worked on with Britain, France and Germany and then shared with Russia and China — said they were no longer pushing for an official UN blacklisting of the central bank.
The draft also calls for restrictions on new Iranian banks abroad, which would make it difficult for Tehran to skirt a global crackdown on transactions with existing Iranian financial institutions by setting up new ones.
“We will be looking for a tightening of restrictions of new Iranian bank activity overseas,” a diplomat said.
The UN Security Council has imposed three rounds of sanctions on Iran for defying UN demands it halt nuclear enrichment. Tehran rejects Western charges that its nuclear program is aimed at developing bombs and says it will only be used to generate electricity.
Another diplomat said urging vigilance about Iran’s central bank in the US-drafted proposal should be more acceptable to Russia and China than blacklisting it, which would have made it difficult for anyone to invest in Iran.
“The idea is to call for strengthened vigilance regarding transactions linked to the Iranian central bank, which the European Union and United States and others can then use as the basis for implementing their own tougher restrictions on [such] transactions,” a second diplomat said.
Only one Iranian bank — Bank Sepah — is blacklisted under an array of UN sanctions spelled out in three resolutions adopted by the Security Council in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
The council has issued warnings about two others — Bank Melli and Bank Saderat — but has not blacklisted them.
The new draft also targets Iranian shipping firms and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and firms linked to it. The measures would restrict insurance and reinsurance coverage of cargo shipments in and out of Iran, diplomats said.
It would also expand the restrictions on arms trade with Iran into a full arms embargo, including a global inspection regime similar to one in place against North Korea.
The diplomats said Russia’s initial reaction was negative.
“Russia says the draft does not correspond to their idea of what the sanctions should be and they reject many of the measures in the latest draft,” a diplomat said.
China has not reacted and has so far refused to engage in “substantive negotiations” on a fourth round of UN sanctions against Tehran. The four Western powers hope to organize a conference call with officials from all six countries to discuss the draft but have been unable to do so due to China.
Meanwhile, Iran is building a new rocket launch site a short distance from an existing complex and seems to be working with North Korea, information group IHS Jane’s said on Friday.
Construction visible from satellite imagery of the new site, near the city of Semnan east of Tehran, suggests that Iran has been collaborating with Pyongyang, the London-based defense intelligence group said.
Iran unveiled the Simorgh (Phoenix) space-launch vehicle (SLV) on Feb. 3, but has not publicly revealed the location of the rocket’s launch complex, it reported.
However, Jane’s said it had observed a new launch pad 4km northeast of the existing Semnan site on a satellite image dated Feb. 6.
The site could ultimately launch Tehran’s next-generation Simorgh rocket, it said.
Jane’s said that using satellite photographs taken on Feb. 11, as Iran celebrated the Islamic revolution’s 31st birthday, it had identified the Simorgh and Safir-2 rockets displayed in Tehran’s Azadi Square.
The respected information group concluded that Iran appears to be forging ahead with developing its missile and rocket capabilities despite US-led diplomatic pressure.
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