UN pressed for third round of sanctions on Iran

Financial Times, UK

Western states today begin the uphill task of persuading fellow members of the United Nations Security Council that a third round of modest economic sanctions would force Iran to come clean about its nuclear ambitions where earlier measures had failed.

At first sight, a package of measures revealed on Friday, and described by a senior European diplomat as "another turn of the screw", looked unlikely to break Tehran's intransigence in the face of demands that it reveal its nuclear secrets and suspend enrichment of uranium that could be used to construct a bomb.

The proposed measures would impose a travel ban and asset freeze on Iranians most closely involved with the nuclear programme. Member states would also be urged to monitor more closely the activities of all Iranian banks, including Bank Melli and Bank Saderat.

Member states would be encouraged to inspect suspicious cargoes to and from Iran and avoid granting export credits that could be used to promote Iran's nuclear activities.

The US, UK and France sought tougher measures but agreed to dilute their proposals in order to gain Chinese and Russian support for a third round of sanctions at a meeting in Berlin last week.

"We would have preferred a stronger set of measures but the unity of the Security Council is just as important," a European ambassador at the UN said.

European diplomats believe the prospects for tougher measures have been undermined by a US intelligence estimate last month that concluded Iran had halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003.

Although the report appeared to remove the urgency from the Iran issue, the Europeans argue that the crisis was never about Iran's progress towards building a bomb but rather its acquisition of the technology and materials to do so.

The European sponsors of the latest package must now persuade other members of the Security Council to come aboard, a process they acknowledge could take weeks. Non-permanent members of the world body include Vietnam, Indonesia and Libya, its current president, which endured a decade of UN sanctions until 2003.

The western sponsors say they are seeking unanimity in the 15-member Security Council in order to persuade the Iranian public that the pursuit of an illicit nuclear programme is not worth the economic cost in terms of trade relations with the rest of the world.

That, in turn, could strengthen the hand of elements in the Iranian regime who favour a strategy of dialogue over confrontation.

The prospective UN resolution comes in addition to bilateral steps, such as a raft of sanctions that Washington imposed in October in the hope that other countries would follow suit, and an informal US lobbying campaign aimed at cutting financial ties with Tehran.