Why Sanctions Against Iran?
Agencies have reported that six major powers trying to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions launched talks here yesterday in search of an elusive compromise on new sanctions against the Islamic republic over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice huddled with her counterparts from Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany to discuss a third round of sanctions against Tehran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. Their meeting followed talks Wednesday and Thursday by senior officials of the six nations. But Russia and China want to give the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) more time to pursue technical discussions with Iran. Iran and the IAEA agreed on a timetable last month for Tehran to provide answers to outstanding questions over its nuclear program, and officials from the UN's nuclear watchdog are in Iran for talks. The IAEA has been probing Iran's program for the past four years but has so far failed to conclude whether it is peaceful or not. As a sign of their deep divisions, the participants said there would be no joint press conference, as is customary, at the end of the meeting. US officials said a joint statement would be issued. "At the time when the IAEA is making progress, ... not on all things which the IAEA demanded ... but the progress is obvious, we want to make sure that we indeed receive a report from IAEA on how those problems which still exist in IAEA perception of the Iranian nuclear program are being treated," Russian Foreign minister said. Iran rejects Western charges that it is trying to build atomic weapons under the guise of its civilian nuclear program and insists it is entitled to pursue uranium enrichment as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the UN General Assembly earlier this week that his nuclear standoff with the West was now a "closed" issue and that remaining outstanding questions should be handled by the IAEA. We do not understand why this fuss?US is un-necessarily pursuing a matter which the IAEA is looking into and Iran has said about a hundred times that they are for peaceful nuclear energy not for weapons. As we understand US has become a master of arm-twisting and somehow in cajoling others in accepting their position. On the other hand the UN has become its rubber stamp in most cases.We urge the members of the security council not to give in to US pressure.
