Key European powers on Thursday formally introduced an amended package of new sanctions in the UN Security Council to pressure Iran into halting sensitive nuclear fuel work and hoped for a vote next week.
Britain's UN Ambassador John Sawers, one of the sponsors of the draft resolution along with France and Germany, told reporters that the text reflected comments made by some of the council's 10 non-permanent members.
"We are seeking further substantive comments from more delegations in the first half of next week so we can take this forward expeditiously," he said.
His French counterpart, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said the aim was to "try to secure adoption of the text if possible next week and if possible by consensus.
Sawers said the new draft builds on two sets of sanctions already adopted by the Council last March and in December 2006 for defying Security Council demands to stop uranium enrichment activities that the West fears could be used to make a nuclear bomb.
Tehran rejects the charges and insists its uranium enrichment program is solely geared to producing electricity.
The sponsors said they were confident that they had enough votes among the 10 non-permanent members to ensure passage, which requires nine votes and no veto from the five permanent members.
The core elements of the draft were approved by foreign ministers of the five veto-wielding council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the US -- plus Germany at a meeting last month.
The draft includes an outright travel ban to be applied on officials who have been involved in Tehran's nuclear and missile programs, and inspections of shipments to and from Iran if there are suspicions of prohibited goods.
It calls "upon states to exercise vigilance in entering into new commitments for public provided financial support for trade with Iran, including the granting of export credits, guarantees or insurance to their nationals involved in such trade."
And it urges vigilance over the activities of financial institutions in their territories with all banks domiciled in Iran, in particular Bank Melli and Bank Saderat and their branches and subsidiaries based abroad.
Ambassadors of several of the council's non-permanent members, including South Africa, Libya and Indonesia, said they wanted to await a report by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) before proceeding to a vote on the draft.
The report by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, due out yesterday and expected to be put to the IAEA's board of governors at a meeting from March 3 to March 7 meeting, focuses on Iran's responses to IAEA queries regarding its suspect past nuclear activities.
A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), the consensus view of 16 US spy agencies, released in December said Iran halted a nuclear weapons program in 2003.
But Israeli ambassador Dan Gillerman dismissed the US intelligence report as "hurried, irresponsible and very, very unfortunate."
"The combination of that NIE report and the upcoming report by ElBaradei do not [augur] a very promising reality for people who are really interested in stopping Iran," he said. "We know ElBaradei has been very forgiving and very understanding of Iran. He has tried to make things look better than they are."
Gillerman voiced hope that adoption of the council draft would be unanimous and that the mounting international diplomatic and economic pressure on Tehran would have some effect.
"But if it does not, I hope that there is an international consensus that Iran should not be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon," he said. "That really means that all options are on the table to stop it from attaining that weapon."
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
RSS