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WASHINGTON: Despite Iran’s defiant pursuit of its nuclear programme, major powers say their unified support for UN sanctions is forcing Tehran to rethink its strategy and new penalties agreed this week will raise that pressure even more.
Many Western officials believe it may be impossible to persuade the rising Middle East power to halt its two-decade campaign to develop nuclear weapons capability. So they are working to delay Tehran’s mastery of uranium enrichment and nuclear weapon production as long as possible.
“I don’t see any signs that the political elite in Tehran are prepared to give up their ambitions to acquire a nuclear weapons capability ... but I do think it’s possible that (the major powers) can succeed in buying some time. Everybody has a tacit interest in stretching out this process,” said Gary Samore, vice-president at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“The Europeans, Russians and Chinese genuinely fear another war. ... They would like to get past the presidency of (George W.) Bush,” he said.
The UN process has been messy, exposing rifts among Germany and the five permanent Security Council members – the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France – leading the effort to curb Iran’s ambitions.
Although they have often stumbled over their own competing strategic and business interests, on Thursday they agreed on a second UN sanctions resolution after only two weeks of debate, compared to several months for the first resolution.
For Washington, quick unified action seemed more important than getting everything it wanted in the second resolution.
Moscow, despite public battles with Washington over Iran, took an important step on its own by delaying delivery of fuel for Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant.
US officials, who urged the delay, say Russia is increasingly worried Iran may acquire a nuclear weapon. They also say the Russians do not want to lose a near-completed nuclear deal with the United States, which could be at risk if they did not cooperate on Iran.
US congressmen have urged even tougher US sanctions on foreign companies investing in Iran’s oil and gas sector, arguing that the UN process results in less effective “lowest common denominator” solutions to the Iranian threat.
But US and European diplomats say ratcheting up sanctions too fast could shatter their coalition, whose unity sends a powerful message that is stoking debate in Iran between hardliners and moderates over whether to negotiate with the West on the nuclear issue.
“The Iranian regime, for all its intransigence, does not like to be isolated and universally derided. They want to have friends and they haven’t got any,” a European diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
Major powers are determined to continue an approach that is incremental, proportional and reversible if Iran halts uranium enrichment – used to produce nuclear weapons or nuclear energy – as the Security Council has demanded, he added.
Major powers accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons but Tehran insists it just wants nuclear energy.
The first UN resolution adopted in December imposed trade sanctions on Iran’s sensitive nuclear materials and technology, and froze the assets abroad of some Iranian individuals and companies. Iran ignored a Feb 21 deadline to suspend enrichment or face further action.
The new text – which still must be adopted by the 15-member Security Council – puts an embargo on Iranian arms exports, a freeze on assets abroad of an expanded list of individuals and companies involved in Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. It urges nations and institutions to bar new grants or loans to Iran except for humanitarian purposes.—Reuters
