No New Iran Sanctions Yet

The U.N. Security Council member nations and Germany were unable to decide yesterday what punitive measures to include in a proposed sanctions resolution against Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment activities, Reuters reported (see GSN, Dec. 11).

U.S. State Department Sean McCormack said political directors from China, Russia, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States discussed a draft resolution for about 90 minutes.

They are still working to finalize the proposal, McCormack said.

“It was a good, constructive phone call.  We're not there yet.  But our hope ... is that in the coming weeks that we could have a resolution that is voted on in the Security Council,” he said.

McCormack said the world powers have not shifted their strategy or tactics in response to a new U.S. intelligence assessment that Iran halted nuclear weapons development four years ago, but he refused to specify if Russia and China supported the new sanctions during the call.

“What is very interesting about this is that we're not talking about whether or not there's going to be a resolution, but we're talking about what are the elements to a new Security Council resolution," he said, noting that the officials plan another telephone discussion in the near future (Sue Pleming, Reuters I/Yahoo!News, Dec. 11).

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad encouraged the United States yesterday to take more steps to engage his country, calling last week’s release of the National Intelligence Estimate a “positive” move, Reuters reported.

“We evaluate this (report) as a positive step, and a step forward and if they take one or two more steps the situation will be totally different … the road will be paved for resolving regional and international issues,” he said.

“We think that any such measures (for new sanctions) has lost its legal basis,” Ahmadinejad said.

When questioned on how Iran would react to a new sanctions resolution, Ahmadinejad replied, “The Iranian nation is capable of defending its interests and in accordance with the decisions they take, the Iranian nation takes its decisions.”

“Now is the time for them to change their behavior,” he said (Parisa Hafezi, Reuters II, Dec. 11).

U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday called on Iran to admit that it ran a secret nuclear weapons program and to explain to the world why it did so, the Associated Press reported.

“Iran is dangerous,” he said.  “We believe Iran had a secret military weapons program, and Iran must explain to the world why they had a program.”

Responding to Ahmadinejad’s call for gestures of reconciliation, Bush said, “You had a hidden program that was a military program. … We think you have shut it down now.  You have an obligation to explain to the world loud and clear why you had a military program.  Do you intend to start it up again.  In other words, the ball is in their court.”

“Iran has an obligation to explain to the [International Atomic Energy Agency] why they hid this program from them,” Bush said.

Bush’s delivered his remarks immediately after meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

“Iran is dangerous, and they'll be even more dangerous if they learn how to enrich uranium," Bush said.  “So I look forward to working with [Napolitano] … to explain our strategy and to figure out ways we can work together to prevent this from happening for the sake of world peace.”

Bush administration spokeswoman Dana Perino said the Iranian president’s comments yesterday were “fanciful thinking” (Associated Press I/International Herald Tribune, Dec. 11).

Administration officials have been expressing increasing frustration over the last week that the new U.S. intelligence report on Iran emphasized the country’s suspension of nuclear weapons development over its push to speed up uranium enrichment, the New York Times reported today.

Some U.S. Defense Department officials have suggested the report might have worsened the Iranian nuclear standoff by narrowing international options to pressure Iran diplomatically. 

The officials added that much of the public has interpreted the report as an indication that Iran does not pose a nuclear threat (Myers/Shanker, New York Times, Dec. 12).

In Tehran, former top Iranian nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani called Ahmadinejad a president lacking “a meaningful foreign policy” who is unable to alleviate Iran’s economic troubles, AP reported.

Rohani has retained his position on Iran’s national security council and is now a member of both the Experts Assembly and Expediency Council, two influential Iranian clerical bodies.

“It's not clear what goals this government is pursuing,” Rohani told the Iranian newspaper Jam-e-Jam. “In addition to that … it has failed to make use of opportunities.”

By making moves toward halting Iranian uranium enrichment in 2003, Rohani said, he and his staff prevented the United States from invading the country.

“The year 2003 was when the U.S. had gained victory in Afghanistan and Iraq and was thinking of invading Iran,” Rohani said.  Traces of highly enriched uranium were found in 2003 at Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment complex although construction of the enrichment and reprocessing sites was not yet finished.

“A lot of noise was created … but we repelled the (U.S.) threats,” Rohani said, saying his team successfully resolved tensions and referred disputes to the International Atomic Energy Agency (Associated Press II/International Herald Tribune, Dec. 11).

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