UN may impose new sanctions on Iran in Feb. 2010

PanARMENIAN.Net - The UN Security Council can impose new sanctions on Iran by late February unless Tehran accepts the Iran Six's offer on its controversial nuclear dossier, Britain's UN envoy said on December 26.



Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States have been trying to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment it says it needs for electricity generation for economic and diplomatic incentives. Iran-Six envoys last met in Geneva on October 1.

 

"There will be some discussion among the Six first, before we table something in New York. But I think probably by the end of February, certainly I expect there to be sanctions," British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told RIA Novosti.

 

Iran, which is already under three sets of United Nations sanctions for refusing to halt uranium enrichment, recently announced plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities. Western powers suspect it of pursuing an atomic weapons program.

 

"We shall be discussing among the six of us over the next few weeks on what elements might be included in a new sanctions resolution against Iran. But at the same time we will always leave the door open to further dialogue," the British diplomat said.

 

Lyall Grant said it is not too late for Iran to start cooperating with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the international community to avoid sanctions.

 

Britain, the United States and France warned Tehran they were likely to push for new sanctions early next year if it refused to halt its nuclear program during a UN Security Council meeting on December 10. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said earlier Moscow prefers "political and diplomatic methods," and that any further sanctions against the Islamic republic are so far unnecessary, finchannel.com reported.