National Post : Iran ignores UN order as U.S. ramps up pressure

Iran ignores UN order as U.S. ramps up pressure

by Sheldon Alberts | CanWest News Service | September 01, 2006

WASHINGTON - After weeks of threatening to defy a United Nations ultimatum, the Iranian government on Thursday ignored a Security Council deadline to stop enriching uranium and now faces the threat of sanctions aimed at crippling its nuclear ambitions.

The Iranian rejection set the stage for the United States and key European allies to begin weighing a set of economic penalties against Tehran, even as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denounced ''arrogant powers'' in the West for seeking to deny his nation nuclear energy.

"There must be consequences for Iran's defiance, and we must not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon," said President George W. Bush. "It is time for Iran to make a choice."

He said Iran's role in sponsoring Hezbollah during this summer's war in Lebanon makes it "clearer than ever that the world now faces a grave threat" from the Islamic regime.

The escalation of tensions between Iran, the U.S. and the UN followed the delivery of an International Atomic Energy Agency report that Iranian nuclear scientists had flouted the impending deadline by enriching a new batch of uranium only a few days ago.

Inspectors discovered traces of highly enriched uranium at a waste storage facility and have demanded an explanation from the Iranian government.

Iran has consistently claimed its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but the UN agency said it could not verify the truth of Tehran's claims because its inspectors were given limited access to several sites.

Much of the uranium enriched by Iran so far has been of poor quality still unsuitable for nuclear weapons and the overall nuclear program is proceeding slowly, the agency said.

"Inspectors have not uncovered any concrete proof that Iran's nuclear program is of a military nature," said a copy of the report obtained by Reuters News Agency.

But "Iran has not addressed the long outstanding verification issues or provided the necessary transparency to remove uncertainties associated with some of its activities."

Iran's decision to reject the Security Council demand, set in a July 31 resolution, was expected after the government opened a heavy-water production plant last week and following a series of bombastic statements by Ahmadinejad.

The Iranian president has become the public face of Tehran's bellicose attitude towards the U.S., hectoring Bush in an open letter earlier this year and this week challenging the U.S. president to a televised debate. He took a hard line again Thursday during a rally in northwestern Iran.

He said Iran would not give "an inch" on the claim it has a right to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

"The Iranian nation will not accept for one moment any bullying, invasion and violation of its rights," Ahmadinejad said.

"Arrogant powers are against Iran's peaceful nuclear progress. Their pretext and claim is that Iran's peaceful nuclear knowledge might be diverted (into bombs) one day. It is a big lie."

The U.S. and its allies "claim to be supporting freedom, but they support the most tyrannical governments in the world to pursue their own interests," he said. "They talk about human rights while maintaining the most notorious prisons."

In New York, John Bolton, Bush's ambassador to the UN, said the U.S. would not seek a new Security Council resolution until after European Union officials meet with Iran's nuclear negotiator next week in a last-ditch effort to convince Tehran to halt enrichment.

"There's simply no explanation for the range of Iranian behaviour which we've seen over the years, other than that they're pursuing a weapons capability," Bolton said.

The U.S., France, Germany and Great Britain have already begun working on a package of potential sanctions, the New York Times reported in its Thursday edition.

While Washington has refused to discuss specifics, they could include financial restrictions on Iran at foreign banks, limits on international travel by Iranian officials and a ban on the sale of nuclear technology to Iran that could be used for peaceful and bomb-making purposes.

Both Russia and China, two veto-holding members of the Security Council with extensive energy ties to Iran, have been urging caution on sanctions. The reluctance in Moscow and Beijing makes it unlikely the U.S. would push immediately for anything but modest penalties in the hope of avoiding a Russian or Chinese veto of any proposal.

"We're certainly ready to proceed here in New York, when we're given the instruction to do so," Bolton said.

Iranian officials, meantime, have been working behind the scenes to try to drive a wedge between the U.S. and its European allies and have said publicly they don't believe the Security Council will approve a sanctions package.

But the U.S. does not ultimately need Security Council unanimity to take action against Iran, Bolton said. One option the U.S. is considering is to urge individual allies to impose sanctions outside the auspices of the UN.

"I think there's a substantial history that sanctions can have a dramatic effect on national policy, and that would be our hope here as well," Bolton said.

In addition to threatening sanctions, the U.S. and its allies have tried to persuade Iran to comply with UN demands by proposing a package of economic incentives.

© CanWest News Service 2006