US warns of ‘other options’: Iran’s nuclear programme
WASHINGTON, April 6: The United States said on Thursday it would push for security, financial, business and travel sanctions on Iran even if the UN Security Council failed to act against Tehran over its nuclear weapons programme.
John Bolton, the United States envoy to the United Nations, said Washington would move to include the international community in implementing the sanctions.
“I think an inability on the part of the Security Council to deal effectively with the Iranian nuclear weapons programme would be a signal that as we are committed to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, that we have to look at other alternatives,” Mr Bolton told a forum of the US State Department Correspondents Association.
“I say that not with any theological backing for that but simply as a very practical matter of looking for the best tool to effect American foreign policy goals.”
Mr Bolton said security sanctions would include combating any illicit trafficking of weapons of mass destruction and related material under the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) supported by 60 nations.
Financial sanctions against Iran, he said, would be similar to those imposed against North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme.
“Other defensive measures we could take are similar to those we have taken in the case of North Korea and looking at the illicit financial transactions by the Iranian government,” he said.
He said the United States also could move to restrict remaining links with businesses in Iran, including imports of carpets and pistachio nuts, that was intended to help small traders.
The United States would work with the international community ‘in terms of restricting action by the leadership of the government of Iran — their financial transactions, their travel opportunities and the economic relations these countries themselves have with Iran’.
A non-binding statement approved unanimously by the world body on March 29 gave Iran 30 days to abandon the sensitive nuclear work, but without issuing a threat of sanctions.
Iran has refused to freeze its nuclear research and development that it resumed in January.
Mr Bolton said that if by the end of this month, Iran defied the Security Council call for it to suspend its nuclear enrichment activities, then the council was expected to issue a ‘legally binding’ resolution.—AFP
