UN signals more sanctions on Iran

More sanctions against Iran may be imposed after the UN Security Council and Germany agreed to consider them, once the latest report from the nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, is released in two weeks.

Britain’s Foreign Office says sanctions will be agreed unless the IAEA reveals more transparency from Iran about its nuclear programme.

Iran is due to disclose full details of its nuclear programme before the end of November and the UN Security Council will meet on November 19 to consider the IAEA report and one by EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana.

No consensus

The United States has already imposed unilateral sanctions against Iran for not fully disclosing details of its nuclear programme and is pushing the UN to take a harder line.

However Germany intends to support sanctions only if Iran fails to comply with international demands after a deadline.
The EU does not have unified position on the extension of sanctions as far.

Russia and China – both trade partners to oil-rich Iran – have strongly opposed sanctions and say Tehran should be given more time to co-operate.

Visiting Tehran two weeks ago, President Vladimir Putin said there was no evidence of Iran working on its own nuclear weapons and that dialogue, rather than sanctions, is the way out of the dispute.

And this week Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Iran where he repeated Russia’s position that “unilateral sanctions against Iran do not help”.

IAEA Chief Mohammed El-Baradei partially shares Russian position and has spoken against the U.S. position which he considers is exacerbating the situation.