Permanent Members Of UN Security Council Agree On Proposed Iran Sanctions

The Permanent Members of the Security Council ( China, Russia, France, UK and US) agreed on a resolution draft for another round of sanctions against Iran one day after Turkey and Brazil announced they had brokered a nuclear fuel exchange with the Iranian regime, a move many believed would impede US negotiations for sanctions.

But the draft presented late this afternoon to the Security Council has already received a cold reaction from Brazilian Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, who told reporters Brazil would not participate in debating the proposed resolution because it believes there is a better way to resolve the conflict.

"The draft seeks to support, not replace, our efforts to engage Iran diplomatically" said US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice."We've said through out this process that the door remains open to Iran to live up to its obligations and achieve a better relationship with the international community."

Rice said the new resolution aims to expand on existing UN resolutions by creating new categories of sanctions likely to "increase the cost" on Iranian authorities if they continue to flaunt their international nuclear obligations. Such measures would include new restrictions on Iran's import of conventional arms, provisions to block its use of international financial systems to fund nuclear proliferation and creating an annex of specific individuals and entities who would be subject to asset freezes and travel bans.

French Ambassador to the UN Gerard Araud said the agreement on the draft resolution reached by Security Council Members, all of whom have " very different political positions and interests", was proof of the international community's shared concern over the Iranian nuclear program.

Russia and China have been the main opponents to another round of sanctions on Iran, but Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters that, although Russsia would not have objected to a brief pause between the Brazilian-Turkish fuel swap and today's resolution draft, his government was satisfied with the general parameters of the sanctions.

"It is a language that is acceptable to us because it is focused adequately on non-proliferation matters and it is not supposed to create any problems for normal economic activity in Iran, it is not supposed to cause any humanitarian damage for Iran" said Churkin , adding that details about the annexes still need to be worked out and that consultations with non-permanent members of the Security Council on the matter would continue in the coming weeks.

Human rights, denuclearization are the next step for North Korea negotiations

“What cannot be undone [...] is the knowledge that North Korea has gained in their nuclear development program since 2002”, said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) at a full committee hearing on the North Korean Six-Party Talks and implementation activities. “That knowledge will always exist, and with it, the concern that a weapons program could be resumed, or the knowledge proliferated.”

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs said that cooperation with the People’s Republic of China has been very important for the talks, and has helped the nation emerge as a responsible stakeholder in the region. He went on to say that during the first two phases of negotiations, North Korea has shut down and began dismantling the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center in exchange for 420,000 tons of heavy fuel oil and other energy supplies.

Hill also said that the US will continue to push the North Korean government for information on abductions of Japanese citizens, while also negotiating continued human rights reforms in response to reports of abuse.

William Tobey, deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation in the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration said that the third phase of negotiations will focus on implementation of comprehensive verification and denuclearization, and that the costs of these activities would be substantially higher than the previous steps. However, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) expressed concern over the costs of the next phase, expressing a desire to discuss sharing the expenses with other 6 members of the talks.