Nations plan sanctions over Iran nuclear issue
World powers trying to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions are drawing up sanctions if Tehran fails to agree quickly to suspend uranium enrichment and return to negotiations.
On the diplomatic front, the six parties – Russia, the United States, Britain, France, Germany and China – are pressing for a meeting next week of top negotiators from both sides and hoping for an answer from Iran.
But senior diplomats from the six nations met yesterday to discuss what sanctions should be imposed on Tehran if it refused to suspend its enrichment programme, US under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said.
Oil-rich Iran says it needs uranium enrichment to produce fuel for nuclear reactors that would generate electricity and insists its programme is peaceful. But enrichment can also create material for atomic bombs and the United States and other nations suspect that is Tehran’s real goal.
The United Nations Security Council set an August 31 deadline for Iran to suspend enrichment or face mild initial sanctions. It urged the Iranian government to respond positively to a package of incentives put forward in June by the six parties. Iran responded in a lengthy document that raised many questions.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters in New York that she was confident that “everybody is committed” to the provisions of the resolution.
“If Iran is not willing to suspend … its enrichment and reprocessing activities and enter negotiations, then we will have security council action under Article 41 Chapter 7,” she said.
“I am absolutely certain of that and we will do so. We want to give diplomacy its best chance but I can assure you the time is not endless.”
Article 41 allows punishments that do not involve the use of armed force, such as economic penalties, air travel bans or breaking diplomatic relations.
French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said the six parties let the deadline slip after the European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana described his initial meeting with Iran’s top negotiator Ali Larijani as “constructive”.
“And from there on we are indeed at a very advanced stage of the discussions between Mr Larijani and Mr Solana,” he said at a breakfast meeting with reporters.
The parties had expected Solana and Larijani to meet this week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s ministerial meeting, but the Iranian negotiator never made it to New York. Douste-Blazy said no specific date was set yet for a Solana-Larijani meeting, but “we do hope for next week, and I hope the beginning of next week”.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said there was a reasonable chance that Iran would return to negotiations on its nuclear programme.
“The chance is there, and the chance is not too slim,” he said. “But for this chance to be realised in practical terms, we need efforts on both sides, and we need goodwill.”
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said for the first time on Thursday that Iran was prepared to negotiate the suspension of its enrichment activities – if there were fair conditions.
Ahmadinejad told reporters “our position on suspension is very clear”.
“In the package given to the Europeans, we’ve discussed that. We have said that under fair conditions and just conditions, we will negotiate about it - under fair and just conditions, I repeat.”
