World powers agree to push ahead with tougher UN sanctions on Iran
Security Council permanent members, Germany demand Tehran answer key questions on its nuclear program.
By The Associated Press Tags: Iran UN Security Council UN Iran sanctionsThe five permanent members of the UN Security Council agreed Friday to move toward a third set of sanctions on Iran should Tehran fail to answer key questions on its nuclear program, the British Foreign Office said.
The Foreign Office said the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France agreed, along with Germany, to come up with a new sanctions resolution with the aim of voting on it if November reports by the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency did not show improved Iranian cooperation.
Russia and China did not comment, but the agreement would mark a surprising turnaround in the two countries' strong resistance to fresh sanctions against Iran.
IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei will report to the U.N. on Iran's nuclear activities in mid-November. EU chief negotiator Javier Solana is also due to submit a report on Iran's cooperation.
The diplomats who met in London on Friday will hold talks again on Nov. 19 to assess the pending reports, a Foreign Office spokesman said.
He said that the Security Council members and Germany had agreed to finalize a text for a third U.N. Security Council Sanctions resolution with the intention of bringing it to a vote in the U.N. Security Council unless the November reports of Dr. Solana and Dr. ElBaradei show a positive outcome of the efforts.
U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns had urged China and Russia to support harsher UN sanctions, saying the two nations were key to a diplomatic solution to the standoff.
"The U.S. believes very strongly there is a need to accelerate the diplomacy, to strengthen the sanctions," Burns told The Associated Press.
"We want a diplomatic solution, we do not want to give up on diplomacy, but we need the help of the P5 (permanent Security Council member) countries to do that, particularly the support of Russia and China."
The U.S. and its allies accuse Iran of using a civilian power program as cover to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge and insists it needs the technology to generate power.
Britain and France have backed the U.S. call for a resolution on a third round of U.N. Security Council sanctions if Iran continues to refuse to suspend uranium enrichment.
Burns said the U.S. believes China has increased trade with Iran in the last six months, sending the wrong signal about the international community's attitude toward the nuclear program.
Iran's former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, said Friday in Tehran that talks between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog were making progress and he warned the U.S. to avoid resorting to threats.
"The U.S. is making mistakes. Iran is having talks [with the IAEA] and has said it will respond to IAEA questions. They are gradually coming and taking their response. One has to wait, talk and make discussions," he said.
Rafsanjani also spoke about the prospects of a U.S. attack against Iran, saying it would create a quagmire for Washington with unimaginable consequences.
Burns said participants at Friday's meeting did not discuss an offer from Saudi officials to create a Middle East consortium of users of enriched uranium.
The proposal by the Arab nations around the Persian Gulf is to build a uranium enrichment plant in a neutral country to supply the region's states, including Iran, with reactor fuel for nuclear energy programs.
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband briefly discussed the proposal with Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, during talks this week, a Foreign Office spokesman said.
Prince Saud told London's Middle East Economic Digest that the plan had been proposed to Iran's government, which said it would consider the proposal.
Burns said Washington would look carefully at the offer, but stressed a similar proposal from Russia - to host Iran's uranium enrichment facilities on its territory to allay Western concerns about monitoring - had been ignored.
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (AP) |
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The headline implies an agreement on the sanctions. But, the article seemed to say there was some kind of an agreement that someone would actually draft a Resolution on the next round of sanctions, if it comes to that. I would have thought that was underway, like, months ago, just in case Mr. el Baredei, or Mr. Solana, finds ANYTHING wrong with the Iranian response to the IAEA's questions. It's funny that the US says it needs more sanctions to promote diplomacy. I don't know about you, but when a guy has a knife in my back, and is threatening to give it a twist, it doesn't feel like more diplomacy. Actually, it feels like less diplomacy. The article also says the Resolution vote will happen "unless the November reports of Dr. Solana and Dr. ElBaradei show a positive outcome of the efforts" Now, what if they disagree? Solana represent the failed EU diplomacy of the 2003-2006 era. They have stake in continuing the escalation. ElBaradei has a stake in a success.
There is no way they can now be stopped, with Pakistan falling apart, Afghanistan in disaray and Iraq in shatters, and with oil at almost 100 dollars a barrell, the region will see a rising tiger in Iran, ggrrrrroooowwwlll!!! :) I live in NYC and am thinking of moving to Vermont or the countryside somewhere, I fear for the world to come.
the term you used goes for the UK as well.
What unprovoked attack? Are you really that stupid? All the scenarios do not an attack make. And please thank your Blair for further stinking up the ME. Cheating the Pals out of their natural gas rights off the coast of Gaza. Your country stinks to high heaven when it comes to the ME.
the mess has been kept alive with all the us vetoing anything against isreal. and now the same us wants other countries to agree to its sanctions against iran, pheui. other messes have been created by the cia, osama bin laden, saddam hussein, and many more such thugs, being among them. who is keeping all the mid-east dictators around? you can say whatever you want, but what turns around comes around. and the question still stands: shall the us ever learn anything after all the debacles and humiliations its gone thru? the next catastrophe is just around the corner in the unprovoked attack on iran
A statement like that coming from the country who created the ME mess in the first place is just laughable. You insensitive jerks with your colonialism have done an uber amount of damage to a lot of other nations. (particularly in the ME) Now you whine when someone else has to clean up the frigging mess you made of everything you touched for the last 500 years.
technology?all you need to worry about is when your camel needs milking,make sure its a female when you start milking,lol!
Add to that the fact Iranian Fars News has stated; Iran says Bahrain is legitimately part of Iran and they want it back.........
I can't wait to see your face when all your ignorant suppositions fall apart. Just like the Fatah/Hamas crap has done.
Are you joking about stealth technology? If you are serious and want to know if it's real, ask the military in Iraq. We bombed them to pieces and not one plane went down. How about it?
...supporting rogue states potentially dangerous even to their own national interests.
the un is amass with us vetoes on anything against israel. is this the time that these vetoes backfire? have the tables been turned against the us? the bigger question though is: will the us ever learn anything? i think not, else there would be no iraq mess now after the vietnam debacle
if their oil wells were destroyed and remained unusable for an extended period of time? I don't think that IAF planes or missiles have the range or capability to do this, but then I'm no expert in military affairs. We already pay an exorbitant price for fuel in Israel, most of which is taxes, so a doubling of the price of oil wouldn't particularly harm the Israeli economy, especially if the government would concurrently lwer the fuel tax.
You write that a large amount of US naval power is presently in the Pacific. Iran, as far as I know, does not border the Pacific. Are the US ships on their way to attack Fiji, or are they on their way to the Persian Gulf?
look carefully at the noises coming out of iran doris !!! you will see this is the only country making threats against others ! that is why the homicidal lunatics must not get nuclear weapons !
lets see. china wakes up tomorrow and finds they have no markets left on the planet and they've slaved for 20 years for a teaspoon of electrons. russia wakes up tomorrow and discovers they might think they have loads of resources [less than canada actually whoooooo] but they don't have a road out. russia thought it had a plan. but what has ever gone right for the russians. these two pimples on the ass of man will follow like puppies
world stopped Hitler before he initiated the Second World War, and think how many more lives we can save if we stop Ahmadinijad now, before he brings upon all of us the Third World War from which civilization may never be able to recover!!!
The latest proposal by the Saudis, and agree to by most Persian Gulf states, is very good news and has a lot of potential. Israel's position just got more awkward and weaker. Israel's main goal has been no muslem/arab country should even be able to touch the nuclear stuff. Now they all are going to have and "learn" to deal with it too. I can even hear some sphincters coming to a complete shut position. As for the US bombing Syria, I don't believe it for a minute. There's no such thing as "stealth" technology. Grow up boy.
The rising price of oil.
This is truly great news. And to those who oppose sanctions the only thing left would be military action. Is that what you want? Ahmedinejad is a dangerous lunatic and the best way to deal with him is to isolate him because there's no use negotiating with a lunatic. And to you Russia and China, thank you. And to you Clickfool, Indrajaya, Chris Linthwaite, POP and all you other Israel haters, too bad for you. LOL
I don'tdiscount the possibility that they may make a bonehead move. But it is contrary to their current rhetoric. I, too keep some track of where the fleets are so I can have a hint of where my daughter is. Yesterday, on one of the radio talk shows, I heard a caller call for New England to succede from the neocon government. This was on one of the "conservative" shows. I'm told that their is liberal talk radio, but not in our part of the country. Emotions are starting to run high.
Bush administration will give Europe and rest of Security Council more time to solve the Iran problem, but the clock is ticking away. The recent rise in crude oil prices is a necessary measure to keep pressure on demand, while giving incentives for increased production. Over the next few months, this will build up stocks so that (when UN fails in its "peaceful" measure), the short term "oil price shock" will be minimized following destruction of Iran's nuclear facilities. Of course, there is always the chance that the UN will actually succeed, but figure the odds!!!
No question expensive oil enriches Cheney and his pals, but something else is going on. Two weeks back there was only one carrier at sea, the Enterprise. The Navy had stopped announcing WHERE ships in the Middle East were. Suddenly there are 6 carriers at sea, 4 in the Pacific, one in the Atlantic, and the Enterprise. This is 50% of all CVs. The percentage of attack subs has gone from the high 30s to the low 60s. There are several amphibious warfare groups at sea in the Pacific, S. China Sea and Philippines. Very unusual. Perhaps it is just some vast exercise. . .
Burns can yak yak all he wants,neither Russia nor China will move against Iran." - Lakshmi The UN is not in control of the situation. Note the very unusual deployments indicated at: http://www.navy.mil/navydata/navy_legacy.asp?id=146 Just a few weeks ago there was an unusually low number of carriers at sea (only one the Enterprise) as well as few Amphibious Warfare ships. I have never seen a larger percentage of attack subs underway unless it was just before a war. Perhaps Dummy and Dick are bluffing. Or, perhaps they are desperate. "And El Baradei will come back with a clean bill of health for Iran,the EU will deliver ambiguities." - Lakshmi The fact that virtually all of the IAEA's questions have been answered is exactly why time is running out for the neocons dreams of conquering both Iraq and Iran. Desperate madmen do dangerous things.
"U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns had urged China and Russia to support harsher UN sanctions, saying the two nations were key to a diplomatic solution to the standoff. " China and Russia are key to international blackmail and I am glad they have the sense to hole their ground against the tyrants in Israel, the US and EU. Go pick on Pakistan and India as they have nuclear capability and so will many other countries in the coming months and yrs. Dutch
And a cat will mate with a dog while singing praises to your cause - same likelihood. I think, very soon you will find your position hopeless, Lakshmi. Iran will discover that Russia and Germany are not its friends. Both have a lot more to loose if they do not tow the line regarding Iran. Iran will not be allowed to own a nuke. Sorry. Prepare to abandon ship.
against Iran.And El Baradei will come back with a clean bill of health for Iran,the EU will deliver ambiguities.
Dick Cheney's company, Halibuton, is an Iranian contractor. Bush has lots of friends in the oil business. The dramatic rise in the price of oil is good for Bush's and Cheney's friends, but bad for everybody else. Target - $125 per barrel by Christmas.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Bahrain's crown prince has said that he thinks Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. This is an astonishing admission (if true) that indicates just how nervous Iran's neighbors are about Iran's intentions.
"Although coupled with the news today that it was American stealth technology which bombed Syria" A story spiced with "tactical nuclear weapons" is not news, but sci-fi - at least until reliably corroborated.
will be a clear indication that the world has learnt little from its response to the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. We must prevent that which we did not before the Second World War!
wd be lovely were it something, but tis nothing. just a bit more window-dressing in the lead-up to the carpet bombing. iran is soon to disappear entirely. pffft.
The agreement in London is that the big five will seek tougher sanctions if Iran continues to prevaricate over whether it will stop enrichment of Uranium. As the Uranium enrichment programme is a smokescreen for Plutonium production (Iran has so many North Korean reactors they gave Syria one) Iran will be happy to have brought even more time. Although coupled with the news today that it was American stealth technology which bombed Syria not Israel there must be some worried people in Iran tonight. They might even take up the Saudis with their offer.
-"Russia and China did not comment, but the agreement would mark a surprising turnaround in the two countries' strong resistance to fresh sanctions against Iran."_ So where is the "story". Russia and China will never kow tow to the US. That is a fact.