Major Powers Agree on Iran Sanctions
Washington — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the major powers have agreed on a draft sanctions resolution against Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
“We have reached agreement on a strong draft with the cooperation of both Russia and China,” Clinton said at a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing May 18. “We have been working closely with our P5+1 partners for several weeks on the draft.”
The draft resolution will be given to the full 15-member Security Council May 18, Clinton said. The P5+1 countries include the five permanent members of the Security Council — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — plus Germany.
Specific details of the sanctions resolution were not announced, but it is expected to carry broad economic penalties against Iranian officials and institutions responsible for the nuclear development program.
The United States and its partners in the talks with Iran have been considering a fourth round of political and economic sanctions through the Security Council after Iran did not comply with an October 2009 arrangement on its nuclear materials.
The Iranian regime announced instead on May 17 that it has agreed to a plan negotiated by Turkey and Brazil to ship 1,200 kilograms of low-enriched uranium to Turkey, where it would be stored. After one year, Iran would have the right to receive about 120.2 kilograms of uranium enriched to 20 percent from Russia and France.
But it was clear from the White House that the Tehran announcement was not convincing. “Given Iran’s repeated failure to live up to its own commitments and the need to address fundamental issues related to Iran’s nuclear program, the United States and international community continue to have serious concerns,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said May 17.
“There are a number of unanswered questions regarding the announcement coming from Tehran,” Clinton told the senators. “I think this announcement is as convincing an answer to the efforts undertaken in Tehran over the last few days as any we could provide.”
In the original arrangement reached in Geneva in October 2009, Iranian officials agreed to ship about 1,200 kilograms of uranium to Russia, which represented about two-thirds of its total stockpile of nuclear fuel at the time. The nuclear material would be processed to 20 percent enrichment in Russia and then shipped to Paris where it could be turned into fuel rods for use in the Tehran medical research reactor. However, the Geneva agreement ultimately faltered under intense political pressure from within Iran.
“Although we acknowledge the sincere efforts of both Turkey and Brazil to find a solution regarding Iran’s standoff with the international community over its nuclear program, the P5+1 … are proceeding to rally the international community on behalf of a strong sanctions resolution that will in our view send an unmistakable message about what is expected from Iran,” Clinton said.
Clinton told the senators that she had spent the earlier part of the day talking by telephone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to complete the resolution.
Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, went before the Senate committee to testify about the proposed arms reduction treaty (New START) between the United States and Russia that would reduce both nations’ nuclear arsenals to 1,550 active warheads each, the lowest level since the 1950s.
