Further Iran sanctions expected

According to an Associated Press report, a third UN Security Council Resolution imposing additional sanctions on Iran is expected to be agreed upon in the near future by the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany. The wire service quoted an un-named French diplomat who confirmed this. The diplomat was quoted as saying that agreement on an additional resolution was close, and was expected to be reached by a meeting of the foreign minister of the six nations, scheduled to take place next Tuesday in Berlin. Two previous resolutions have been passed by the UNSC, calling on Iran to suspend its programme of uranium enrichment, which the international community suspects is part of a Iranian attempt to acquire nuclear weapons capability.

The recent US National Intelligence Estimate had been thought to have removed much of the urgency of the international campaign for Iran to cease its programme of uranium enrichment.  The estimate contended that Iran's weaponisation programme had probably been frozen in 2003. In the period since the issuing of the NIE, China and Russia have increased relations with Iran, with Russia beginning the supplying of nuclear fuel to the Iranian nuclear power plant in Bushehr. The latest news, however, indicates that the NIE has not reversed western suspicions of Iranian intentions in the nuclear arena.

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