UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – The United States handed the U.N. Security Council a draft resolution yesterday that would expand U.N. sanctions against Iran by hitting its banking and other industries for refusing to halt nuclear enrichment.
The 10-page draft, agreed by the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia after months of negotiations, also calls for international inspection of vessels suspected of carrying cargo related to Iran’s nuclear or missile programs.
The text, Western diplomats say, was the result of a series of compromises between the United States and its three European allies, which had pushed for much tougher sanctions against Tehran, and Russia and China, which sought to dilute them.
Few of the proposed measures are new. But Western diplomats said the end result was probably the best they could have hoped for, given China’s and Russia’s determination to avoid measures that might have undermined Iran’s troubled economy.
The decision to circulate the resolution to the 15-nation Security Council was a tacit rebuff to a deal brokered by Brazil and Turkey and made public on Monday in which Iran agreed to send some enriched uranium abroad in return for fuel rods for a medical research reactor.
U.S. officials regard that deal as a maneuver by Iran to delay more U.N. sanctions.
Brazil’s U.N. ambassador made clear her country was unhappy that the United States and its allies appeared to ignore the deal that her country has described as a major breakthrough in the long-running nuclear standoff between Iran and the West.
“Brazil is not engaging in any discussion on a draft at this point because we feel that there is a new situation,” Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti told reporters outside the Security Council chamber. “There was an agreement yesterday which is a very important one.”
A Turkish diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not rule out discussions on the draft but said “our focus is on the other track” — referring to the Tehran fuel swap agreement.
But U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the deal had “nothing to do” with the uranium enrichment that led to the threatened sanctions against Iran.
Iran rejects Western allegations that its nuclear program is aimed at developing weapons. It says its atomic ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity and refuses to suspend uranium enrichment.
