UN passes toughest sanctions yet on Iran

The UN Security Council today imposed its toughest sanctions yet on Iran in what could be its last chance to prevent a defiant Tehran from acquiring a nuclear bomb.

Both China and Russia joined the 12-vote majority in favour of the sanctions in the 15-nation council, but Lebanon abstained and Brazil and Turkey voted against.

The resolution will be the fourth round of UN sanctions since 2006 aimed at curbing Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons ambitions – and it is not clear that the big powers will have time to negotiate another round before Iran achieves “breakout” potential to build a nuclear bomb.

Analysts voiced doubt that the tightened sanctions would dissuade Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon that would upend the strategic calculus in the Middle East.

“Iran has been very successful at getting round sanctions to date and continues to find ways to move equipment and other supplies. They use false fronts and change ship names. They understand the legal limits of sanctions and are able to play around with them,” said Dr Theodore Karasik, research director at the Institute for Near East & Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai.

“Whatever happens, Iran will continue its nuclear weapons programme. Everyone in this part of the world understands that.”

The new UN sanctions will prohibit the sale of heavy weapons such as tanks, warplanes, attack helicopters and warships to Iran and allow inspection of planes and ships suspected of carrying banned cargoes.

The resolution will also freeze the assets of 41 more Iranian firms, including 15 controlled by the increasingly powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

One individual, Javad Rahiqi, the head of Iran’s Esfahan Nuclear Technology Centre, where uranium is processed, will be added to a UN blacklist that subjects him to a travel ban and asset freeze.

Sir Richard Dalton, associate fellow at Chatham House, said: “The measures in this resolution send a strong political message but it has been clear for years that that no economic factors are going to bring about any flexibility in the Iranian position.”

With Iran continued to enrich uranium, the failure of the “dual track” approach of diplomatic sticks and carrots, pursued by the six-power grouping of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the United States, could make an attack by Israel or the United States the only option left to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear arms.

The resolution also contains language that could trigger non-UN sanctions by major powers, including the European Union, on key “correspondent banking” and insurance services to Iran.

It calls on all UN members “to prevent the provision of financial services... if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that such services... could contribute to Iran’s proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities.” The new package, however, falls short of the “crippling sanctions” threatened last year by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state.

Moscow and Beijing won a series of concessions from the United States as negotiations on the new resolution dragged on for six months after President Obama’s year-end deadline for Iran to cooperate with UN demands that it halt uranium enrichment.

As well as dropping a proposal for a ban on new investment in Iran’s energy sector, the United States agreed to water down the text to limit the scope of the new sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp and the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.

Washington removed four Russian firms from a US blacklist for helping to arm Iran and Syria, and re-wrote the resolution to allow Moscow to go ahead with its much-delayed sale of S-300 air defence missiles to Teheran.

The Obama Administration also promised to try to exempt Russian and Chinese firms from future Congressional sanctions on companies that do business with Iran.

Susan Rice, the US representative at the UN, told the Security Council, however: “These sanctions are as tough as they are smart and precise.” Sir Mark Lyall-Grant, Britain’s UN ambassador, read the council a statement from the foreign ministers of the six powers, also known as the “E3+3”, stressing that the resolution “keeps to door open for continued engagement between the E3+3 and Iran.” “We expect Iran to demonstrate a pragmatic attitude and to respond positively,” the six-power statement said.

Brazil and Turkey voted against the resolution in a display of annoyance that the big powers had ignored a deal they struck with Iran last month to swap low-enriched uranium for higher-grade nuclear fuel for the Teheran Research Reactor.

The United States, Russia and France dismissed the swap deal yesterday in confidential responses to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Glyn Davies, the US chief told the nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation board in Vienna that Iran appeared “determined to defy and to obfuscate’ international attempts to probe its nuclear programme.

“We do not see sanctions as an effective implement in this case,” said Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, Brazil’s UN representative, told the Security Council. “Sanctions will most probably lead to the suffering of the people of Iran and will play into the hands of those on both sides who do not want dialogue to prevail.” Ertugrul Apakan, Turkey’s UN envoy, said: “We see no viable alternative to a diplomatic and peaceful solution.”
Source:The Times