Rice pushes for Chapter 7 resolution against Iran.
Whether it is oilman Rice, Hillary or McCain it is called passing the baton and guarantees that the long war will remain long. #msg-9920721
-Am
Rice pushes for Chapter 7 resolution against Iran.
US will push for Iran assets freeze
Sunday, April 16, 2006
* Russian military chief says Iran can’t make nuclear weapons
WASHINGTON: The United States will push its allies next week to consider targeted sanctions on Iran that include a freeze on assets and visa restrictions, the State Department said on Friday.
Political directors from the main powers involved in trying to rein in Iran’s nuclear programs are due to meet in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss what action to take after Tehran announced this week it had become a nuclear power by enriching uranium.
The senior officials from France, Germany, Britain, the United States, Russia and China will look at “real actions” the United Nations can take to get Iran to change its behaviour, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. The options under a Chapter 7 resolution under the UN charter could include a freeze on assets and travel restrictions on some members of the Iranian government, said McCormack. “These are all levers at the disposal of the international community,” McCormack told reporters.
While pushing for sanctions, US officials said they would not look at imposing restrictions on the oil and gas sectors, pointing out the intention was not to create further hardship for the Iranian people.
In an interview with Voice of America’s Persian language television program, senior State Department official Nicholas Burns said Tehran would face sanctions and that Iran had left itself “no exit points” on the Iran issue.
“We very much hope that these sanctions will not be implemented bluntly in a way that would be damaging to the Iranian people, but it is going to be sanctions that will get the attention of the Iranian government,” said Burns, who will represent the State Department at Tuesday’s Moscow meetings.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a day earlier that the United Nations should consider a Chapter 7 resolution against Iran when it reconvenes, probably at the end of this month, to discuss Iran. Chapter 7 makes a resolution mandatory under international law for all U.N. members. It can lead to sanctions and eventually the use of force if it specifically calls for them or threatens “all necessary measures.”
Russia and China, key players on the Iran issue with veto rights in the Security Council, strongly oppose sanctions or the use of military force against Tehran. All other council members, including close ally Britain, oppose military action.
Iran’s president said on Friday the existence of Israel was a threat to the Islamic world, a statement that McCormack called “reprehensible” and made strong action against Iran even more necessary.
“This is the kind of rhetoric that has only added to the fears and concerns of the international community as it relates to Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon,” said Meanwhile, Russia’s highest-ranking military officer said on Saturday that Iran is incapable of producing a nuclear weapon now or in the distant future. “I can confidently say that what Iran is doing today does not allow it the possibility, either in the near or distant future, to make a nuclear weapon,” chief of staff General Yury Baluyevsky was quoted as saying by Interfax and ITAR-TASS news agencies.
Baluyevsky characterised Iran’s military capability as being aimed only “at preventing military action” against the country, ITAR-TASS reported. However, he did not rule out that materials used in the Islamic republic’s controversial civilian nuclear programme “could be used also in the creation of a nuclear weapon.”
Russia is Iran’s main supplier of civilian nuclear technology and also an important source of conventional weapons. The US and European Union say they suspect Iran is secretly trying to build a nuclear weapon under cover of a civilian power project, something Tehran denies. Tension increased last Tuesday when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that the Islamic republic had successfully enriched uranium for use as nuclear fuel, sparking international condemnations. Moscow insists the country has a right to nuclear power and has pushed hard for a diplomatic solution to the international standoff.
Deputy foreign ministers from Russia, the United States, China, Britain, France and Germany plan talks on the Iranian issue in Moscow next Tuesday. agencies
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