Washington: US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton on Thursday appointed an official to lead American
efforts to implement the latest round of sanctions against
Iran passed by the UN Security Council.
"I have appointed Bob Einhorn, our senior advisor on
nonproliferation issues, to head up a government-wide effort
to implement the sanctions coming out of the United Nations,"
Clinton told reporters Bogota, Columbia, where she is on an
official visit.
"The Congress has been working on its own legislation
for many months. I look forward to consulting and working with
them. There may likely be other entities, unilateral or
multilateral, that will similarly take a look at the action
today and determine what else is necessary," she said.
Referring to the action of the Security Council which
passed a resolution yesterday, Clinton said these were the
most significant sanctions that have been imposed on Iran.
"Iran worked very, very hard to avoid the large vote
in favour of these sanctions. The fact that we were successful
in achieving such a show of unity in the face of Iran`s
continuing obstructionism was good for the international
community, the rule of law, and the overall goal that we share
with so many around the world to prevent Iran from obtaining
nuclear weapons," she said.
"This is a very important step, but it is just a step
in our efforts to dissuade Iran from pursuing a non-peaceful
nuclear programme," Clinton said.
Turkey and Brazil, two non-permanent members of the
Security Council, voted against the resolution, which creates
new categories of sanctions like banning Iran`s investment in
nuclear activity abroad, banning all ballistic missiles
activities, blocking Iran`s use of banks abroad and asset
freezes for members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
"We certainly appreciate the extraordinarily hard work
of many of our partners around the world, including Turkey and
Brazil, which ultimately decided they could not support the
sanctions but have been working very hard for many months to
achieve the same goal that we all share: preventing Iran from
developing nuclear weapons," she said.
"We look forward to working with our P-5+1 partners,
as well as any others who share the goal, understand the
urgency of it, and are prepared both to enforce sanctions that
will undermine and prevent Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons,
but try to reopen the door to diplomacy and negotiation," the
Secretary of State said.
PTI
