UN/IRAN: U.S. expects further measures against Iran at the United Nations

U.S. ambassador Alejandro Wolff has said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim that his country could produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale will likely result in further penalties issued against Iran by the United Nations Security Council. And Germany, now president of the European Union, says it views Iran's statement that it has achieved the means to make nuclear fuel on an industrial scale with "concern". The top U.S. envoy at the United Nations said on Tuesday (April 10) that Iran's latest statement on its nuclear program made it likely the U.N. Security Council would impose further penalties against Tehran. But Ambassador Alejandro Wolff said any action would wait for a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, due in late May. "I suspect that if this approach continues, we will be back here escalating measures again," Wolff said. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday (April 9) his country was now capable of industrial-scale uranium enrichment, which can be used for peaceful energy purposes or to make reactor fuel for a bomb. Russia was quick to say it saw no sign the Iranians had made significant progress, a view echoed privately by Western experts who saw the boast as a public relations effort. But if true, Iran is defying two Security Council resolutions demanding it suspend enrichment programs. "Yesterday's rejection of the approach laid out in those resolutions, I think makes clear that Iran continues to disregard its obligations, to ignore the will of the council and therefore the international community," Wolff said. He said Ahmadinejad has heightened tensions. "I don't recall one speech the president of Iran has ever made that has made things easier," Wolff said. In Berlin Gernot Erler, state secretary at the German foreign ministry expressed his concern. "Germany has made a declaration in the name of the European Union presidency, expressing its concerns over the news," Erler said. "At the same time, it asked Iran to respect the demands of the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and to respect the last two United Nations resolutions, meaning (Iran) should interrupt these programmes and return to the negotiating table," he added. Germany is current president of the EU. Asked how hopeful he was that Iran would return to the negotiating table, Erler said: "We have to have patience now and above all, we must ensure that the international community stays united." "The unanimous reactions to this propaganda event in Natanz," the Iranian uranium enrichment site where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his remarks, "show that there is a lot of common ground," Erler said. "Russia too, a very close partner of Iran, was speaking of a provocation," he added. The Security Council voted 15-0 on March 24 to impose new sanctions on Iran for its nuclear ambitions by banning Tehran's arms exports and putting financial bans on individuals and institutions, including the state-owned bank and elite Revolutionary Guards. The measures followed a Dec. 23 resolution outlawing trade in sensitive nuclear materials and ballistic missiles, as well as freezing assets of some some individuals and institutions associated with Iran's atomic programs. Ahmadinejad also spoke about reviewing Tehran's policy of cooperation with the IAEA if the West continues to pressure Iran over its atomic program, which the United States and leading European nations believe is a cover for bomb-making. Iran denies this, saying its projects are to produce electricity. Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, explained later that Iran would be forced to review its membership of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the 1970 accord that obligates nonnuclear states to renounce the pursuit of atomic weapons.

ITN Source | April 11, 2007

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