UN resolution to impose fresh sanctions against Iran ready for vote

PanARMENIAN.Net - A UN resolution to impose fresh sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program is ready for vote by the UN Security Council.

Mexico's UN Ambassador Claude Heller -- the current council president -- said members have decided "to have a vote this week."

The United States, the author of the text, said last week that progress had been made to meet demands of other Security Council members.

However, Brazil's UN Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti said her country and Turkey are pressing for an open "political debate" on the broader Iranian nuclear issue first.

Both non-permanent council members recently brokered a fuel-swap agreement with Iran aimed at addressing concerns that it may be enriching uranium for nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, Yukiya Amano, said that Iran has failed to cooperate with his agency to "confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities."

Amano was speaking in Vienna as the IAEA board of governors convened for a meeting.

In its latest report on Iran last week, the IAEA said Iran had produced almost six kilograms of higher-enriched uranium, which Tehran says it will use in a medical research reactor.

Iran denies Western claims it is secretly developing nuclear weapons, RFE/RL reported.