The International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to tell the UN Security Council Thursday that Iran failed to halt uranium enrichment or to cooperate with international inspectors. The deadline set by the council for Iran to freeze all enrichment activity expires on Thursday, and unless there is a huge surprise, the road will be open to imposing sanctions.
The US has announced its intention to draft a resolution calling for sanctions immediately after the deadline expires, and at the same time, it is busy composing a response to the response by Iran on August 22 to the incentive package offered by the US and Europe in exchange for stopping nuclear enrichment activity. The response to Iran's lengthy letter is expected to reiterate that since Teheran did not accept the basic condition of halting nuclear enrichment, there is no room to discuss other elements of the incentive package.
US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said Wednesday that the US expected all Security Council members to act against Iran if it did not meet the deadline. "If they [the Iranians] haven't done that by August the 31st, we also said repeatedly and the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany have agreed that we would come to the Security Council to seek sanctions," he said. |