Britain to press for more sanctions on Iran

LONDON, Nov 15 (Kuwait News Agency) -- Britain is to press for further sanctions against Iran in a bid to prevent it developing nuclear weapons, peers were told Tuesday.

British Foreign Office Minister Lord Howell said a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency indicated Iran had worked on developing nuclear weapons and some of the work was continuing.

At question time he urged Iran to take the "necessary steps to assure the international community that it is not pursuing a military nuclear programme".

And he warned Britain would be pressing for "strong action" when the agency's board of governors meets later this week.

For the Opposition, Lord Triesman asked what sort of sanctions the Government would push for and what was the prospect of gaining UN backing for them.

Lord Howell acknowledged the effect of further sanctions against Iran could be "undermined" by continuing trade with China and other countries.

"But we do believe sanctions of a financial kind can be tightened still further to make it harder and harder for the mullahs and the Iranian Government to get their revenues from oil and oil products.

"We believe targeted sanctions can be developed. We believe various loopholes can be closed," he said.

"The bigger issue is how the world unites as a whole to put pressure on the regime to cease to flout the non-proliferation regime".

Labour former security and counter-terrorism minister Lord West said "the elephant in the room" was the possible use of military force against Iran. "If you make a threat you have to have the willingness to carry that out," he said.

"It does seem to me that we are sleepwalking towards a situation where we may well find ourselves as a nation involved in military action we have not thought through the full implications of." Lord Howell said there were "risks on all sides" in the current situation.
"The implications have been thought through," he told Lord West.

"Meanwhile we concentrate on negotiations and sanctions, and hope to achieve an effective outcome.

"But the reality must be presented to Iran that options are on the table of all kinds."(end) he.ibi KUNA 152022 Nov 11NNNN