Ahmedinejad's Call Causes Bush Warmongers to Fold

U.N. may have compromise on penalties for Iran

By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY
The United Nations Security Council neared a compromise Monday over a resolution to punish Iran for refusing to stop its nuclear fuel program.

An agreement would break a months-long impasse. Russia and China, which have close economic ties with Iran, have opposed broad sanctions that might hurt their trade. The United States, Britain, France and Germany have pushed for tough punishment.

The compromise resolution would apply sanctions only to equipment and technology Iran uses in weapons programs and nuclear fuel production, according to a copy of the compromise provided to USA TODAY by a diplomat from a Security Council nation involved in the debate.

The contents of the draft, which still must be approved by the Security Council, were confirmed by another U.N. diplomat who had read it. The officials did not want their names used because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the resolution until it has been formally introduced.

"Clearly this draft does absorb the Russian philosophy," said Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin. "It's not a punitive kind of text. It is a text looking to a negotiated diplomatic outcome."

It excludes Iran's civilian nuclear power plants, such as one Russia is building at the Iranian port of Bushehr. The United States had advocated including Bushehr in the ban.

The resolution would freeze the assets of and bar foreign travel by 12 Iranians the U.S. government says are involved in the country's nuclear and missile programs.

Jackie Sanders, a U.S. delegate to the United Nations, said she was optimistic the draft would be adopted soon.

The resolution is unlikely to stop Iran from continuing its nuclear program, said Gary Samore of the Council on Foreign Relations. Iran still needs some materials, such as specialty metals, but they are used in other civilian applications and easy to smuggle, Samore says.

Ted Galen Carpenter, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank, said that only massive economic sanctions might work. The resolution "will produce a giant yawn in Tehran," he said.

The Security Council has been trying to take action against Iran since it defied an Aug. 31 council deadline to suspend efforts to make nuclear fuel. The Bush administration and its European allies have had a hard time persuading Russia.

Iran has paid Russia $1 billion to complete the power plant at Bushehr. Russia is afraid broader sanctions would jeopardize other commercial ties, including the sale of $1 billion in anti-aircraft missiles, said Ray Takeyh, an Iran expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said an Iran with nuclear weapons "would be one of the most — if not the most — destabilizing event we have ever seen in the Middle East."

Original article posted here.