WarSclerotic

Evelyn Leopold: Iran Sanctions Negotiations Start at UN With No End in Sight (Update).

UNITED NATIONS – The first talks at the United Nations on US proposals for sanctions against Iran began on Thursday but could take a month or even two months before any resolution is adopted by the 15-nation Security Council.

“I’m not prepared to predict when they will conclude or not — we’re working to get this done swiftly within a matter of weeks in the spring,” Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters.

The talks were made possible by the consent of China to negotiate on possible new sanctions against Iran for refusing to suspend uranium and discuss its nuclear activities.

China, which gets 11 percent of its oil and gas from Iran, was perhaps persuaded that diplomacy had reached an end, at least for the time being, after a recent visit to Beijing by Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili. Iran could reverse this by agreeing on a fuel-swap deal that would send out some of its uranium for a research reactor for refining in Russia and France.

Yet, despite all the hype, particularly from Washington, in predicting negotiations for weeks, the key participants in the discussions – the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany – would not on Thursday admit the talks had started or that they were being held at Britain’s UN mission, where reporters were waiting.

France’s Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner first announced the talks on Wednesday. He told reporters in Paris that “China will participate in a meeting tomorrow in New York. Whether they will talk about the text, whether it’s just to respect formalities, I don’t know.”

The negotiations follow a scathing attack by Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against President Obama, calling him an “inexperienced amateur” who was quick to threaten to use nuclear weapons against U.S. enemies. He was reacting to new US restrictions on the use of nuclear weapons in the new Nuclear Posture Review that nevertheless left Iran and North Korea as potential targets.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes but has not allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect all suspected sites. The UN Security Council, in three previous rounds of sanctions that China approved, has demanded Iran suspend all enrichment of uranium, which can be used in bombs.

“Obama made these latest remarks because he is inexperienced and an amateur politician,” Ahmadinejad said on Iranian television, Reuters reported. “American politicians are like cowboys. Whenever they have legal shortcomings, their hands go to their guns.”

The US proposals, agreed with European allies and shown to Russia and China in early March, include sanctions against Iran’s banking, shipping and insurance sectors, mainly those run by the Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Guards are increasing their hold on the Iranian economy as well as playing a leading role in brutally crushing any opposition. The draft also broadens the list of individuals facing a travel ban and assets freeze. China as well as Russia is expected to dilute the measures but energy supplies are not on the list.

In Prague, where Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and President Obama signed an arms reduction treaty on Thursday, the Russian leader said he was in favor of “secure strong sanctions” but that they should not bring hardship to the Iranian people. He said he had presented the American president with a list of what was and was not acceptable.

If the six powers agree, the other 10 Council members must support the measures and the United States wants at least 14 votes, expecting Lebanon to oppose or abstain as its government now includes the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group. But Brazil and Turkey, which have rotating seats on the Council, also have reservations.

Separately, both the United States and the European Union are considering further unilateral sanctions. But UN Security Council sanctions in the long run can have more impact as they apply to all states. Council diplomats said that one aim of the sanctions was to show the Iranian establishment it was isolated and that increased penalties, no matter how incremental, would become more costly than pursuing a nuclear arms program.

How far Iran is from making a bomb is in dispute. But Tehran kept its program a secret for 18 years, revealing it to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency only six years ago.

Still, like Iraq’s late President Saddam Hussein, having or pretending to have weapons of mass destruction, is often a step towards regional one-upmanship. “In some perverse way, Iran made (nuclear energy) attractive,” said Mohamed ElBaradei, the recently retired director general of the IAEA. “Nuclear power, in many ways got sexy.”

This entry was posted on April 8, 2010 at 11:28 PM and is filed under Iran / Israel War. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.