U.S.: Six powers to discuss tougher sanctions on Iran

NEW YORK - The group of six major powers dealing with the Iranian nuclear crisis will hold a conference call Wednesday to discuss whether to impose tougher sanctions on Tehran, a U.S. State Department spokesman said.

On Tuesday, Iran finally responded to the package of incentives the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany offered in June in return for freezing its uranium enrichment program, but the reply did not address the 5+1 group's demands.

The contents of the letter Iran handed yesterday to European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana were "laughable," one European diplomat told Reuters, but declined to give details.

An EU official told the news agency, "We have received the letter," without giving details. An Iranian official was quoted by the news agency as saying that the document indeed makes no mention of uranium enrichment in return for suspending sanctions against it. "The letter handed over is not an answer to the offered package. The letter does not mention the freeze-for-freeze issue," the Iranian official said.

Britain, France and the U. S., which have taken the toughest line on the matter, sent a letter to the Security Council warning that Iran's central bank and other financial institutions are trying to dodge the sanctions imposed on financial dealings with Iran by camouflaging their moves and employing clandestine channels.

UN diplomats who were not surprised by the Iranian response said yesterday that complete failure to address the uranium enrichment issue is in line with Iran's policy of defiance and deception of the Security Council.

The views of senior American and European diplomats at UN headquarters regarding Iran's nuclear plan and evasive tactics are more demanding than the pacifying trend Solana is spearheading from Brussels. Diplomats in New York said yesterday that the U.S., Britain, and France will begin talking to fellow Security Council members in the next few days with the purpose of assuring a majority for a fourth resolution on tighter trade sanctions on Iran.

The previous three resolutions passed after Russian and China were persuaded to support the sanctions. "These two countries' support for another resolution is attainable," a Western diplomat said yesterday. In another development, the deputy director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Olli Heinonen, is scheduled to visit Iran tomorrow. A spokeswoman for the UN nuclear watchdog declined to specify the purpose of the visit.