The United States acknowledged Thursday that it will face tough resistance from some of its key allies as it presses for UN sanctions against Iran over its suspect nuclear program. Iran's refusal to comply with UN demands that it suspend uranium enrichment activities some fear could produce nuclear weapons is set to feature high on the agenda when world leaders gather in New York next week for the UN General Assembly.
US officials have for weeks been expressing strong confidence that the permanent Security Council members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — will swiftly reach agreement on political and economic sanctions designed to force Tehran to abandon its enrichment program.
Such sanctions were called for in a Security Council resolution adopted in July, which gave Iran until August 31 to freeze its enrichment activity — a demand Tehran ignored.
But with some Security Council partners increasingly reticent to go down the path of sanctions, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack admitted Thursday that the upcoming negotiations would be "hard-fought".
"The reality of it is that there are going to be intense negotiations on this," he said.
McCormack predicted the process of trying to hammer out a sanctions package with the other Security Council members "would take weeks", a far less ambitious timetable than put forward earlier by Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, who said a deal would be reached in September.
But McCormack continued to express confidence Washington's allies would ultimately back the sanctions foreshadowed in their earlier resolution.
"Our diplomatic interactions indicate that while this will be complex, sometimes hard-fought diplomacy, that we will, in fact, end up with a Security Council resolution that includes sanctions," he said.
Earlier Thursday, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy issued a thinly veiled warning to Washington and Britain — the other staunch advocate of sanctions — that pressing too hard for sanctions could fracture the coalition confronting Iran.
"If one or two of the permanent members of the Security Council fail to uphold this dialogue, and there is a growing drive — on either side — towards confrontation, the international community would split," he said.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao also warned on Thursday that imposing sanctions on Iran could have the "opposite effect" of hardening Iran's stance in the showdown.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said Washington wants the sanctions to be imposed in a graduated manner to build pressure on Iran to give up its enrichment program and accept international offers to help it develop a monitored civilian nuclear power industry.
Rice confirmed Wednesday that she will meet her fellow foreign ministers from the permanent Security Council members plus Germany on the sidelines of the General Assembly meeting in New York to discuss the sanctions.
Source: Agence France-Presse
