THE UN Security Council will impose its toughest sanctions yet on Iran today despite threats by Tehran to break off all nuclear talks.
The new measures will prohibit the sale of heavy weapons to Iran, allow inspection of aircraft and ships suspected of carrying banned cargo and freeze the assets of a top Iranian official and several dozen more Iranian companies, including many units of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (Irisl).
If the resolution is approved Javad Rahiqi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran’s Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre, will face an international travel ban and all his assets abroad will be frozen.
The resolution also contains provisions that could trigger non-UN sanctions by so-called like-minded nations such as the United States, the European Union and Japan on key correspondent banking and insurance services to Iran.
However, the package falls short of the crippling sanctions once threatened by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, because Russia and China blocked any UN embargo on the Iranian energy sector.
Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, said in London yesterday that the resolution offered hope of curbing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions. “I do not think we have lost the opportunity to stop the Iranians from having nuclear weapons,” he said.
Russia and China are expected to join a 12-vote majority for the new UN sanctions in the 15-nation UN council, with Brazil, Turkey and Lebanon abstaining or opposed.
The Iranian President, who attended a regional summit in Turkey yesterday, warned that Tehran would reject any further talks on its nuclear programme if the UN imposed sanctions.
“I have said that the US Government and its allies are mistaken if they think they can brandish the stick of resolution and then sit down to talk with us; such a thing will not happen,” President Ahmadinejad said.
Iran said that it would use legal channels to secure the release of its nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri who, in a video clip screened on Iranian television channels, said that he had been kidnapped by US agents.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said that the film confirmed Tehran’s charges that Mr Amiri had been “kidnapped by US and Saudi intelligence services”.
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