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| UN to vote on Iran sanctions on Wednesday |
| 2010-06-09 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] The U.N. Security Council will vote Wednesday on a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran over its refusal to come clean on its suspect nuclear program, its president said here Tuesday. Mexican Ambassador Claude Heller, who chairs the 15-member council this month, made the announcement to reporters after emerging from a closed-door session at which members also decided to hold a private session later Tuesday. "The co-sponsors have announced that the resolution will be (put) to a vote tomorrow morning at 10:00 am (1400 GMT)," Heller said. From Istanbul, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad however warned Tuesday that talks with six major powers on his country's suspect nuclear program would be broken off if new sanctions were imposed. The council's 15 members were huddling behind closed doors for the second day running to consider a request by Brazil and Turkey to have an open debate on the nuclear standoff with Iran prior to the vote. The decision to have a private session later Tuesday appears to be a concession to Brazil and Turkey which have sought a public debate to make their case that fresh sanctions would be counterproductive and that a fuel swap deal they brokered with Tehran should instead be used as an opportunity for further diplomacy. Last month, the two countries brokered a deal under which Iran agreed to ship 1,200 kilograms (2,640 pounds) of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Turkey in return for high-enriched uranium fuel for the Tehran reactor that would be supplied later by Russia and France. A cool reaction Iranian President Ahmadinejad said that the nuclear rights of his country were not negotiable But the accord drew a cool reaction from the six world powers which have been trying to clip Iran's nuclear ambitions and which are co-sponsoring the sanctions draft. The six, the five council permanent members: Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States along with Germany, insist they have the nine votes necessary to secure adoption. The U.S.-drafted text would broaden sanctions slapped on the Islamic Republic in three previous resolutions, the last one adopted on March 3, 2008. It would expand an arms embargo and measures against Iran's banking sector and ban it from sensitive overseas activities like uranium mining and developing ballistic missiles, diplomats said. It would authorize states to conduct high-sea inspections of vessels believed to be ferrying banned items from or to Iran. In a nod to Brazil and Turkey, the text does note the efforts of the two countries "toward an agreement with Iran on the Tehran Research Reactor that could serve as a confidence-building measure." |
| Posted by:Fred |