Major UN Security Council powers have agreed on an incremental increase in
sanctions on Iran, including anew restriction
on exporters doing business with the country, diplomats said.
A draft
resolution also calls for more monitoring of Iran’s military and financial institutions, broader travel bans on Iranian nuclear scientists and other key officials, and freezing the assets of people and banks linked to weapons proliferation, Security Council diplomats told The Associated Press on Thursday. Diplomats from the five nations with veto power on the council the US, Russia, China, Britain and France spent a third day negotiating a final agreement on principles that would form the basis for a third round of UN
sanctions on Iran.
They were joined by Germany, which has long been involved in efforts to resolve the Iran nuclear dispute. The general terms were worked out in Berlin earlier this week, chiefly through negotiations between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Those elements have been closely held, though they have begun circulating among the rest of the 15-member council. Russia and China, which have strong business ties with Iran, resisted earlier British and French draft principles pushing for harsher sanctions if Iran keeps refusing to stop enriching uranium a process that can provide fuel for a nuclear reactor or fissile material for a bomb. Iran says its nuclear programme seeks only to generate electricity.
The US administration continues to press the case that Iran tests ballistic missiles, enriches uranium toward building an atomic bomb, hides information and remains in violation of two previous UN Security Council resolutions. On Wednesday, Russia said the new resolution would not impose harsh sanctions against Iran.
Security Council diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because negotiations were sensitive, said the new resolution would impose new credit restrictions on exporters. Such measures could complicate matters for nations such as Germany and Italy that are major trading and investment partners with Iran and have billions of dollars of export credits at risk.
Diplomats say a third round of sanctions is unlikely to be approved until next month, after the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog based in Vienna, receives more answers from Iran. Iran agreed to answer all remaining questions about its nuclear activities after IAEA director Mohammed Elbaradei visited Tehran in January.