“Substantial Progress” Made in Iran Sanctions Talks

U.N. powers made significant headway yesterday toward reaching agreement on imposing sanctions against Iran, Reuters reported.  Representatives from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany met in New York to hammer out differences on how to respond to Iran’s refusal to curb its nuclear program (see GSN, Dec. 13).

The group made “substantial progress,” said British U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, who added that he hoped the closed-door discussions could end this week in time for a full Security Council vote next week.

A draft resolution crafted by France, Germany and the United Kingdom would ban U.N. nations from trading nuclear or missile technology with Iran.  In addition, the current draft calls for barring the international travel of 12 Iranian officials and freezing the assets of 11 Iranian firms and agencies, Reuters reported.

Russia has sought to ease some of those measures.

“The travel ban, we think it does not fit,” said Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin.

Furthermore, Russia is seeking to have a Security Council committee select the Iranian organizations that should have their assets frozen, a process that could take months, according to Reuters. 

The United States, on the other hand, has backed the travel ban strongly and would prefer to give council the authority to exempt Iranian organizations from a frozen assets list set by the resolution.

Also in dispute is the mechanism for ending the sanctions.

The European draft calls for the sanctions to be suspended if the International Atomic Energy Agency determines that Iran has met the Security Council’s demands by halting work to develop uranium enrichment sites or a heavy-water nuclear reactor, Reuters reported.

Russia would like the sanctions to be fully lifted if Iran takes those steps.  The United States would prefer to have no automatic sanctions relief, but would rather have the council debate the sanctions again if Iran complies, according to Reuters (Reuters/New York Times, Dec. 13).

The council debate on how to lift any future sanctions could be moot in light of Iran’s consistent stand that it will not cave in to U.N. pressure.

“The latest draft resolution of the U.N. Security Council is unacceptable to Iran, as it restricts Iran’s right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” top nuclear negotiation Ali Larijani said yesterday.  “The U.N. Security Council should not be involved in resolving the Iranian nuclear problem, as that is a technical problem that should be resolved under IAEA control” (RIA Novosti, Dec. 13).

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