By Bay Fang
The United Nations Security Council approved a new round of sanctions against Iran in a near-unanimous vote Monday afternoon.
Adding on to the previous two rounds, meant to punish Iran for refusing to suspend its uranium enrichment program, the resolution bans trade with Iran in goods which have both civilian and military uses. It also authorizes inspections of shipments to and from Iran, by sea and air, that are suspected of carrying banned items.
The vote was 14-0, with Indonesia abstaining.
“Because Iran has continued its defiance of the international community, including three UN Security Council resolutions as well as multiple resolutions from the IAEA Board of Governors, we are now faced again with ratcheting up the pressure and ratcheting up the sanctions,” said State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey.
Casey cknowledged that the sanctions were not as strong as they could have been, because of compromises made to accommodate other Security Council members.
Meanwhile, long-delayed talks between Iran and the U.S. over security in Iraq have been postponed yet again. While a date had been set for last week, Iran, whose president just wrapped up a two-day visit to Baghdad, put them off once more for unstated reasons.
Iran had been pushing for months for these talks – the one channel between Tehran and Washington – to take place, so it’s not clear why it would now seek a delay. Some suspect the Iranians want to broaden the discussion.
“They want to expand the talks to include the nuclear issue, which we are absolutely not going to do,” said one senior administration official.
The last round of U.S.-Iran talks took place last summer, and were suspended when U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker called them unproductive in his September testimony before Congress.