A defiant Iran shrugged off the threat of new sanctions on Wednesday as Brazil and Turkey urged the UN to wait and see how a nuclear swap deal plays out before caving in to US pressure.
However, US President Barack Obama told Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Washington would continue to press for sanctions because of “fundamental concerns” about Iran’s nuclear program, the White House said.
In the phone call on Wednesday, Obama told Erdogan “Iran’s persistent refusal to meet with the P5+1 on Iran’s nuclear program and recent refusal to halt enriching uranium to nearly 20 percent, do not build confidence,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
The so-called P5+1 groups the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the US — plus Germany.
Security Council members Turkey and Brazil earlier urged the world body not to impose new sanctions until Iran had been given time to honor a deal they brokered to swap about half its low-enriched uranium (LEU) for nuclear fuel.
“Brazil and Turkey are convinced that it is time to give a chance for negotiations and to avoid measures that are detrimental to a peaceful solution,” read a letter signed by their foreign ministers.
The two countries forged a deal on Monday they hailed as a step toward ending Iran’s years-old standoff with the West, but which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton framed as an attempt by Tehran to avoid further punishment.
Under the deal, the Islamic republic agreed to ship out much of its stockpile of low enriched uranium to neighboring Turkey in exchange for fuel for a research reactor for medical isotopes.
“This agreement is a new fact that has to be evaluated,” Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who led the Iran-Brazil-Turkey negotiations, insisted in Brasilia.
Iran, which maintains that its nuclear enrichment activities are purely for civilian energy purposes and not aimed at building an atomic weapon as the West fears, said the international desire for new sanctions was wilting.
“[Talk of] imposing sanctions has faded and this resolution is the last effort by the West,” the Fars news agency quoted Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who also heads Iran’s atomic energy organization, as saying.
However, Obama said he was “pleased” by developments after usual standouts Russia and China gave their backing to a tough new draft sanctions resolution circulated on Tuesday to the full UN Security Council.
“We agreed on the need for Iran to uphold its international obligations or face increased sanctions and pressure, including UN sanctions,” Obama said after talks with visiting Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
“And I’m pleased that we’ve reached an agreement with our P5 plus-1 partners on a strong resolution that we now have shared with our Security Council partners,” Obama said.
The new draft being considered by the Security Council foresees cargo ship inspections and new banking controls.
It would also expand an arms embargo and measures against Iran’s banking sector as well as ban sensitive overseas activities like uranium mining and developing ballistic missiles.
The draft has the blessing of all five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, plus Germany — a significant boon to the US after months spent trying to persuade Moscow and particularly Beijing to come on board.
China’s backing of a fourth round of sanctions against Iran came despite its earlier support for the fuel swap deal.
“We attach importance to and support this agreement,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) said after Monday’s accord was struck.
Given the Brazil-Turkey letter, China’s apparent reluctance to comment on new sanctions and Russia speaking only of its “understanding in principle ... on the draft resolution,” Salehi expressed doubts there was an emerging international consensus against his country.
“We should be patient because they won’t prevail and by pursuing the passing of a new resolution, they are discrediting themselves in public opinion,” he said.
“I think there are some rational people among them who will stop them from making this irrational move,” he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki expressed similar skepticism about the chances of new sanctions being passed.
“There is no chance the resolution is going to be passed,” he told state-run Al-Alam television from the Tajik capital Dushanbe. “The nations who are seeking to impose sanctions are in the minority.”
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