US seeks other options if UN fails to act on US seeks other options if UN fails to act on Iran
Friday, April 07, 2006
LONDON, April 7 - The United States said it would push for security, financial, business and travel sanctions on Iran even if the UN Security Council failed to act against Tehran over its nuclear weapons program, AFP reported.
John Bolton, the United States envoy to the United Nations, said Washington would move to include the international community in implementing the sanctions.
"I think an inability on the part of the Security Council to deal effectively with the Iranian nuclear weapons program would be a signal that as we are committed to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, that we have to look at other alternatives," Bolton told a forum of the US State Department Correspondents Association.
"I say that not with any theological backing for that but simply as a very practical matter of looking for the best tool to effect American foreign policy goals," he said.
Bolton said security sanctions would include combating any illicit trafficking of weapons of mass destruction and related materials under the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) supported by 60 nations.
Financial sanctions against Iran, he said, would be similar to those imposed against North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.
"Other defensive measures we could take are similar to those we have taken in the case of North Korea and looking at the illicit financial transactions by the Iranian government," he said.
He said the United States also could move to restrict remaining business links with businesses in Iran, including imports of carpets and pistachio nuts, that was intended to help small traders in the Islamic republic.
The United States would work with the international community "in terms of restricting action by the leadership of the government of Iran, their financial transactions, their travel opportunities and the economic relations these countries themselves have with Iran."
Iran has refused to comply with a UN Security Council demand to freeze uranium enrichment, defying a warning from major world powers which fear that it secretly wants to develop an atomic bomb.
A non-binding statement approved unanimously by the world body on March 29 gave Iran 30 days to abandon the sensitive nuclear work, but without issuing a threat of sanctions.
Iran has refused to freeze its nuclear research and development, which includes uranium enrichment, that it resumed in January, insisting on nuclear technology for peaceful purposes as its right.
Bolton said that if by the end of this month, Iran defied the Security Council call for it to suspend its nuclear enrichment activities, as required by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), then the council was expected to issue a "legally binding" resolution.
"And that will say not just we urge you to comply with the IAEA resolutions but we require you to comply with the IAEA resolutions," he said.
If after a certain period, Iran refused to comply then the next step could well be sanctions of some kind, he said.
Veto holders Russia and China are expected not to back any sanctions against Iran, which denies it is building a nuclear weapon.
Bolton, a hardliner in the Bush administration, said the Iran issue was a crucial "test" for the UN Security Council's role in resolving international issues.
Noting that the Bush administration had always been accused "of being a bunch of unilateralist cowboys," he said it had actually used diplomacy under a "calibrated, gradual, reversible approach" on Iran.
"If the Russians and Chinese ... chose for their own national intersts reasons to block action in the Security Council, as permanent members holding a veto, that is obviously their prerogative but the other permanent members at that point are entitled to take due note of that," he said, without elaborating.
Based on the negotiations so far, he said, the attitude of the Chinese "was considerably more flexible and helpful than was the position taken by Russia."