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U.N. readies Iran sanctions vote, agrees blacklist
A young boy stands behind a flag as he and his mother, supporters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wait for his arrival at Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport May 5, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Morteza Nikoubazl
UNITED NATIONS |
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - After months of tough negotiations, Security Council powers said on Tuesday they were set to vote on a resolution that would impose a fourth round of U.N. sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear program.
Mexico's U.N. Ambassador Claude Heller, current president of the 15-nation Security Council, told reporters it was due to meet for the vote at 10 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, after agreement was reached on who would be targeted in Iran.
The resolution, if approved, would impose "the most significant sanctions that Iran has ever faced," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Ecuador's capital, Quito.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the expected passage of the resolution would provide a springboard for individual countries to take their own tougher measures against Tehran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment.
Iran, however, warned its close trading partner Russia against joining Western nations in backing new punitive measures against the Islamic Republic.
Western diplomats expect 12 of the council members, including all the five that hold vetoes, to vote for the resolution. Turkey, Brazil and Lebanon are not expected to support it.
The resolution, obtained by Reuters, lists one individual and 40 entities, including one bank, to be blacklisted. It names the individual as Javad Rahiqi, head of a nuclear center in Isfahan where Iran runs a uranium processing facility.
Diplomats said China had demanded that one company, the Export Development Bank of Iran, be struck off the list.
Rahiqi and the firms added to an existing U.N. blacklist for suspected ties to Iran's nuclear or missile programs will face international asset freezes, if the resolution is adopted. Rahiqi will face a global travel ban.
The draft resolution was the product of five months of talks between the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia. The four Western powers had wanted tougher measures -- some targeting Iran's energy sector -- but Beijing and Moscow worked hard to dilute the proposed steps.
'APPROPRIATE REACTION' FROM IRAN
The resolution calls for measures against new Iranian banks abroad if a connection to the nuclear or missile programs is suspected, as well as vigilance over transactions with any Iranian bank, including the central bank.
It also would expand the U.N. arms embargo against Tehran and blacklist three entities controlled by Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and 15 belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The resolution would also establish a cargo inspection regime similar to one in place for North Korea.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters in New York that Washington remained open to dialogue with Iran as part of the council's dual strategy of engagement and pressure.
"Our aim remains to persuade Iran to halt its nuclear program and negotiate constructively," she said.
But Iran's ambassador to the U.N. nuclear watchdog warned of an "appropriate reaction" against world powers if they imposed new sanctions. An Iranian lawmaker said Tehran would reconsider its cooperation with the Vienna-based watchdog if the sanctions went ahead -- a threat Tehran has made before.
Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and not aimed at making atomic weapons, as the West suspects. It has defied five Security Council resolutions demanding it stop enriching uranium, which can produce fuel for bombs or reactors.
Gates said in London that individual nations likely would move quickly to pass measures that go beyond the U.N. sanctions.
"I believe that a number of nations are prepared to act pretty promptly," he said.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad admonished Russia at a news conference in Istanbul, where he was attending a summit along with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, to take care "not to be on the side of the enemies of the Iranian people."
Putin, who said he expected to meet Ahmadinejad on Tuesday in Istanbul, said the sanctions should not be excessive.
"We will have an opportunity to discuss these problems if my Iranian colleague will have such a need," he said, adding there should be no obstacles to the "development of Iran's peaceful nuclear energy.
The Iranian president said a nuclear fuel swap deal agreed by Tehran with Turkey and Brazil was an opportunity that would not be repeated. The deal, which has been rejected by the West as too little too late, was intended to defuse the crisis.
Turkey and Brazil last month revived parts of a U.N.-backed offer for Tehran to part with 1,200 kg (2,600 pounds) of low enriched uranium in return for special fuel rods for a medical research reactor. They say the deal removes the need for sanctions.
Ahmadinejad said the swap deal was a one-time offer.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul urged Ahmadinejad on Monday to tell the international community his government was ready to cooperate and solve the dispute over its nuclear program.
(Additional reporting by Jon Hemming and Gleb Bryanski in Istanbul, Adam Entous in London and Andrew Quinn in Quito; editing by Eric Beech)
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THEREFORE, MIDEAST NATIONS NEED TO HAVE PERMANENT IMPARTIAL VETO WIELDING MEMBER AT UN SECURITY COUNCIL NOW
!!!. IT NEEDS A CHANGE NOW
U.S. policy on nuclear Iran underscores bias toward Unbreakable bond Israel,
AFTER IRAQ WITH NEVER BEEN FOUND WMD, IT IS CLEAR BY NOW US ANTI IRAN TIRADE
RHETORIC DOUBLE STANDARD IS ONLY ON BEHALF OF UNBREAKABLE BOND ISRAEL, NOT THE
NON PROLIFERATION TREATY OR THE WORLD, TO MAKE SURE THAT ISRAEL IS THE SOLE
NUKES POSSESSOR IN MIDEAST. HISTORY PROVES ITSELF.
THERE IS NO SINGLE CREDITABLE EVIDENCE THAT IRAN FLOUTS THE NPT RULES OR DEVELOPS NUKES.
US AND ZIONIST MEDIA USING PROPAGANDA LIES TO CREATE ILLUSION AND MAKE BELIEVE THAT IRAN IS TO DEVELOP NUKES.
US NEVER CLEARLY STATES WHAT IRAN HAS DONE WRONG WITH NPT.
Washington’s “double standard” on Iran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), while
selling “nuclear technology to Israel and India,” a non-signatory to the NPT.
US continues its annual $3 billion assistance to Israel, despite an American law forbidding aid to any country
producing weapons of mass destruction. Not only did ISRAEL THREATEN TO SEND SYRIA BACK TO STONE AGE BUT ALSO
Israel offered to sell apartheid-era South Africa nuclear warheads in 1975.
Iran is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is at the moment
FULLY in compliance with it, has no nuclear arsenal, and does not even have a
nuclear weapons program. (The treaty allows countries to enrich uranium for fuel, which is all that Iran
is known to be doing). NPT signatories have treaty-based rights to seek civilian energy production, either by
enriching uranium or separating plutonium.
Article IV: 1. Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the
Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without
discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty.
2. All the Parties to the Treaty undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in, the fullest
possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of
nuclear energy. Parties to the Treaty in a position to do so shall also co-operate in contributing alone or
together with other States or international organizations to the further development of the applications of
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, especially in the territories of non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the
Treaty, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world.
In addition, the International Atomic Energy Agency has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear
facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted to
nuclear weapons production.
With more than 200 nuclear weapons and the capacity to deliver them against its enemies or use them to buttress
its policies, Israel refuses to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty or to open its nuclear facilities for
International Atomic Energy Agency inspection. On the other hand, Israel and the United States insist on
applying the harshest possible sanctions against Iran, which they fear may be developing nuclear weapons. The
United States furthermore is responding to a regional initiative to make the Middle East a zone free of weapons
of mass destruction by linking it to progress in the peace process, which means a peace customized by and
suited especially to meet Israel’s interests, naturally, because Israel is the sole nuclear power in the
region. In promoting this deal, imposed by a nuclear Israel on a much weaker region, the United States is
affirming that it certainly pays to be a nuclear power — you get things done on your terms — It is making
mockery of other nations when the white house spokesman says Iran must assure THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY. In
fact more than hundred countries support Iran’s right to nuclear technology UNDER NPT but the white house
spokesman and the media do not consider that number of countries as international community. Only the bullies
are entitled speak for other countries.
INDONESIA CERTAIN IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAMME NOT FOR DEFENCE PURPOSES.
OIC backs Iran nuclear declaration
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has backed an Iranian declaration which aims to end a standoff
over Tehran’s nuclear program.
118 member states of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), have once again voiced support for Iran’s right to the
peaceful use of nuclear energy.
The organization said nations, including Iran, have an inalienable right to the peaceful use of atomic energy.
UN SECURITY COUNCIL SHALL REJECT IRAN SANCTION FOR THE SHAKE OF PEACE, NOT FOR WAR ON BEHALF OF US AND
UNBREAKABLE BOND ISRAEL. INSPECTING IRANIAN VESSELS ON HIGH SEAS LIKE NORTH KOREA IS AN ACT OF WAR BUT IRAN HAS
NOT TESTED NUKES.
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