The Wall Street Journal-20080123-Politics - Economics- U-N- Discord Likely to Weaken Iran Sanctions
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Politics & Economics: U.N. Discord Likely to Weaken Iran Sanctions
WASHINGTON -- A tentative United Nations sanctions plan targeting Iran, to which the U.S. and other world powers agreed yesterday, is likely to be weaker than the Bush administration sought.
The watering down of the financial penalties against Tehran illustrates the discord within the international community over how to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions, diplomats involved in the negotiations said.
This dissension, these officials said, has grown since the White House released an intelligence report last month that concluded Tehran quit developing atomic weapons in 2003, even as it has continued to develop a nuclear-fuel cycle.
"It's a watered-down document" from what was originally sought, said a Western diplomat working on Iran. "It's more about vigilance than the freezing of Iran's assets."
At a meeting in Berlin, members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany, announced an agreement on a draft resolution penalizing Iran for its failure to suspend its nuclear-development work. European diplomats at the meeting hailed the pact as a signal from the U.N. that it remains committed to changing Iran's nuclear activities even as it seeks direct negotiations with Tehran.
"We are united in the view that a nuclear-armed Iran would have dramatic consequences for the Middle East and farther afield," Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said following a nearly two-hour meeting with his counterparts in Berlin.
Officials at the meeting declined to divulge the specifics of the draft resolution. U.S. diplomats said its contents could be changed once it is formally brought before the U.N. Security Council in New York, expected in the next few weeks.
Still, a number of Western diplomats said the outlines of the resolution are likely to fall short of the punitive financial measures Washington sought. The resolution is expected to include travel bans on key members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and other individuals believed involved in Tehran's nuclear work. It is also expected to call for the freezing of the assets of these individuals and other entities allegedly involved in nuclear proliferation.
The resolution doesn't call for a broader penalizing of Iran's financial system that Washington promoted, according to these individuals. The U.S. had lobbied for the U.N. to sanction two of Iran's largest banks, Bank Melli and Bank Saderat, arguing that they play central roles in financing Tehran's nuclear program. The draft resolution is expected to call only for greater monitoring of these banks' activities.
