UK/IRAN: World powers to push on with more Iran sanctions

World powers agree to impose a third round of sanctions on Iran amid anti-regime protests in London and warnings against a military strike from Tehran. Six world powers agreed on Friday (November 2) to push ahead with a third sanctions resolution against Iran unless reports later this month show that Iran has shown greater transparency about its nuclear programme, Britain said. Political directors from Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Russia and China will meet again on November 19th to assess reports from the United Nations atomic watchdog and from European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, a spokesman for the Foreign Office said. "Political directors agreed to finalise a text for a third U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution with the intention of bringing it to a vote in the U.N. Security Council unless the November reports of Dr Solana and Dr El-Baradei show a positive outcome of the efforts," the spokesman said. Earlier, a rally was held outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London by opposition group, the Iranian National Council of Resistance of Iran, demanding more sanctions on the Islamic republic. "We are here to urge P5+1 to immediately produce comprehensive United Nations sanctions in a resolution against the Iranian regime in order to prevent it from aquiring a nuclear bomb with which it wants to threaten peace and tranquility in the world. We believe that much precious time has already been lost to give the regime what it needs -- which is time -- to complete its nuclear projects," Hossein Adelini, spokesman of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, told Reuters. Speaking during a Friday prayers sermon in Tehran before the Security Council decision was announced, former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani urged patience and warned the U.S. of the consequences of a military strike on his country. "These threats are inflaming the world. If they come true, they will create another quagmire for the global arrogance (the United States)," he said. Rafsanjani, who is also the speaker of the powerful Assembly of Experts, said that Iran was cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), referring to an agreement in August under which Tehran pledged to the Vienna-based body to clear up suspicions about past secret atomic activities. "America is making a mistake. Iran has entered into negotiations and is talking to the Agency (IAEA). Iran has told the Agency to ask its questions and get the answers. One should be patient and negotiate. One should ask questions and hear the answers," Rafsanjani added. Referring to any possible U.S. military action, he said: "I am sure that if America seeks adventure again, soon all the nations of the world will realise that America has made an obvious mistake." U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking to reporters on Friday on her way to Turkey, said Washington had had some "tactical" differences with China and Russia about the timing and the "depth or breadth" of a new U.N. resolution. The major powers agreed in late September to delay a vote on new sanctions until late November at the earliest after it had received reports by the IAEA and a European Union negotiator.

ITN Source | November 2, 2007

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