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Australia blocks three shipments to Iran
[Al Arabiya Latest] Australia said it used an anti-weapons of mass destruction law to block three shipments to Iran but calls for new sanctions against the Islamic state opened up a new international divide Thursday.Western countries who fear Iran is trying to develop a nuclear bomb also condemned a test rocket launch by Iran. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said his country had blocked three shipments of unidentified cargo to Iran invoking a rarely used Weapons of Mass Destruction Act. Rudd did not give details of the cargo. But The Australian newspaper reported that at least one of the orders made in recent months blocked a shipment of pumps which could have been used to cool nuclear power plants. "If you look at the threat to regional and global peace which Iran poses in its current nuclear weapons program, there is no alternative other than robust international action including in areas such as this," Rudd told Australian television. The United States and France led condemnations of Iran for launching its Kavoshgar 3 (Explorer) rocket, which Iran said carried a capsule containing a rat, turtle and worms and was an experiment in sending living creatures into space. Iran has denied it is trying to build a bomb. The U.S. White House called the launch "provocative." France believes "this announcement can only reinforce the concerns of the international community as Iran in parallel develops a nuclear program that has no identifiable civil aims," a foreign ministry spokesman said. Posted by: Fred 2010-02-05 |
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