Washington: Notwithstanding Iran`s
nuclear deal with Turkey and Brazil, the US on Tuesday said it has reached an agreement with Russia and China on imposing fresh sanctions on Tehran for not meeting its international
obligations with respect to its atomic programme.
A draft of the proposed sanctions resolution would be
distributed to the members if the UN Security Council in New
York on Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in her
testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"We have been working closely with our P5 + 1 partners
for several weeks on the draft of a new sanctions resolution
on Iran. Today, I am pleased to announce that we have reached agreement on a strong draft with strong cooperation from both
Russia and China. We plan to circulate that draft to the
entire Security Council on Tuesday," Clinton said.
"This announcement is a convincing answer to the
efforts undertaken in Tehran over the last few days. There are
number of unanswered questions regarding the announcements coming from Tehran. (We) acknowledge the sincere efforts of Turkey and Brazil to find a resolution regarding Iran`s standoff with the international community over its nuclear programmes," she said.
"The P5 + 1 including Russia, China, US, France, the
UK and Germany along with the high representative of the EU
are proceeding to rally the international community on behalf
of a strong sanctions resolutions that will, in our view would
send, a message about what is expected of Iran," she said.
Iran yesterday signed an agreement with Turkey and
Brazil -- both non-permanent UN Security Council members – to ship 1,200 kilogrammes of its low enriched uranium to Turkey for a later swap for nuclear reactor fuel.
The US yesterday said it salutes the effort of Brazil
and Turkey on reaching a nuclear swapping deal with Iran, but
questioned the real Iranian intentions in this regard.
"If they were to make good on this and ship out 1,200
kilograms of low-enriched uranium, yes, that would represent
progress. But, it is important to understand that this
agreement/proposal is less than what they agreed to last
October," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.
"And understand that even though they agreed to this
last October, it never came to pass because they changed their
mind. So that`s why I say the words and the deeds of the
leadership in Iran have rarely coincided," he said.
The Press Secretary said while shipping out the
low-enriched uranium would represent some progress, the United States and the international community still has concerns about the overall thrust of the nuclear programme.
PTI
