U.S., EU to Review Iran Sanctions

The United States and the European Union today agreed to consider imposing economic sanctions against Iran, measures that would go beyond those already established by the U.N. Security Council, the White House announced (see GSN, June 5).

The effort is designed to build pressure on Iran to curb its uranium enrichment program, which Washington has argued is intended to enable Tehran to produce nuclear-weapon materials. 

The Security Council has so far levied three sets of sanctions as Iran has refused the council’s demand to freeze its key nuclear activities.

“We will fully and effectively implement [the] U.N. Security Council resolutions … and we are ready to supplement those sanctions with additional measures,” says the joint declaration released today at the U.S.-EU summit in Brdo, Slovenia.  “We will continue to work together … to take steps to ensure Iranian banks cannot abuse the international banking system to support proliferation and terrorism.”

“We reiterate our concern about Iran’s regional policies, especially its continued support for terrorist organizations, and call on Iran to play a responsible and constructive role in the region,” the statement adds.  “We also underline our continued concern about the deterioration of the human rights situation in Iran, especially those of human rights defenders, women and minorities” (White House release, June 10).

Meanwhile, a once-dismissed proposal to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis has gained new footing, the Boston Globe reported today.

The face-saving concept calls for operating an enrichment facility in Iran under international control, thereby preventing production of weapon-grade uranium while giving Tehran the prestige of having a modern, indigenous nuclear facility.

Iranian officials have made similar suggestions in the past that have been rejected by the United States, but Iran has made great strides in the past few years to build an enrichment capability that has no bounds on it, the Globe reported.

“This is nobody's first choice, but it may be the compromise we end up with,” said Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund.

Three U.S. nonproliferation experts have been conducting private talks with Iranian officials over the past year to promote the idea (see GSN, April 14).  The three include former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Thomas Pickering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology expert Jim Walsh and United Nations Association President William Luers.

In addition, MIT weapons experts John Thomson and Geoffrey Forden have been researching technologies that would prevent Iran from seizing a multilateral facility and modifying it to produce weapon-grade material, according to the Globe.

The multilateral concept has gained more attention in the U.S. Congress in recent months, the Globe reported, receiving interest from Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.; Farah Stockman, Boston Globe, June 10).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.