A divided U.N. Security Council on Wednesday imposed a
fourth round of financial and commercial sanctions on Iran's military
establishment, bringing to a close more than six months of grueling diplomatic
efforts by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to penalize Tehran for building a covert nuclear
facility and accelerating its enrichment of uranium.
The 15-nation council adopted the resolution by a vote of 12 to 2. Brazil and
Turkey voted no, citing concern that the U.S. and other key sponsors of the
resolution did not exhaust diplomatic efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff
with Tehran. Lebanon, which has a complicated history of Iran ties, abstained.
The resolution falls short of the "crippling sanctions" U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton pledged to impose on
Iran after U.S. intelligence officials presented evidence a year ago that Iran
was constructing a clandestine nuclear reactor at Qom. But U.S. officials
hailed today's vote as a show of international resolve in the face of Iran's
continued defiance of Security Council resolutions demanding it suspend its
uranium enrichment program.
"These are tough, strong and comprehensive sanctions that will be the
most significant of all of the resolutions that imposed sanctions on Iran," Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to
the United Nations, told Turtle Bay
in an interview before the vote. "The fact that the Iranians have exerted
so much effort and spent so much money to block this from coming into effect is
one of several indications that they really don't want these sanctions adopted
and enacted. I think they share our views quite frankly that these are a
significant and serious set of new sanctions."
Iran's U.N. ambassador, Mohammad
Khazaee, said Iran would not comply with the council's demands, saying the
U.S. and its allies will "never be able to break our determination."
"As one of the most powerful and stable countries in
the region Iran has never bowed and will never bow to the hostile actions by
these few powers and will continue to defend its rights," Khazaee said.
The Obama administration succeeded in securing support for sanctions from the
council's permanent members, including China and Russia, by watering it down to
ensure it would not impair their ability to trade with Iran and by including
explicit assurances that it would not be used a pretext for future military
action. But the four-year-long campaign to rein in Iran's nuclear program faced
a new challenge from regional powerhouses, Brazil and Turkey, who have used the
Iran crisis to assert their role on the diplomatic stage.
"Sanctions will most probably lead to the suffering of the
people of Iran and will play into the hands of those on all sides who do not
want dialogue to prevail," said Brazil's U.N. ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, explaining his country's decision to
vote against the resolution. "Past experience, most notably the case of Iraq
shows that the spiral of sanctions, threats, and isolation can result in tragic
consequences."
After the vote, the U.N.'s five major powers on the council
issued a joint statement calling on Iran to restart talks on its nuclear
program. They also pledged to engage Iran in talks on a deal to swap Iranian
low-enriched uranium for a supply of more purified form of uranium to be used
for a medical research reactor in Tehran.
In voting against the resolution, Turkey said that it shares U.S. concerns about
Iran's nuclear program. "Our vote against the resolution should not be
construed as indifference to the problem emanating from Iran's nuclear
program," said Turkey's U.N. ambassador Ertugrul
Apakan. "There are serious question marks within the international
community regarding the purpose of Iran's nuclear program and this needs to be
clarified. We call upon Iran to show absolute transparency about its nuclear
program and demonstrate full cooperation with the IAEA in order to restore
confidence."
The 10-page resolution would modestly reinforce a range of economic,
high-technology and military sanctions against Iran, and slaps an asset freeze
and travel ban on the head of the of Iranian atomic energy agency, Javad Rahiqi, and 40 entities linked to
the nation's military elite, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran has repeatedly rebuffed calls to halt its uranium-enrichment program;
Iranian leaders say their efforts are entirely peaceful, but the United States
and others say Iran is set on building a bomb.
The sanctions target 15 companies linked to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps, including the Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, which
was involved in construction of the secret Qom facility. It imposes sanctions
on 22 firms, including the First East Export Bank, involved in Iran's nuclear
and ballistic weapons program. And it also sanctions three entities controlled
by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, which is accused of
transporting illicit military goods to Iran.
Follow me on Twitter: @columlynch.
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