BICOM

Britain, France, Germany and the United States yesterday in private meetings of the United Nations Security Council condemned Iran’s new efforts to enrich uranium at an underground bunker near the city of Qoms. However, the Western envoys said that there was little chance that the Security Council would impose a fifth round of UN sanctions on Iran due to resistance from veto holding powers held by China and Russia.

French Deputy Ambassador Martin Breins said that Tehran’s new move to enrich uranium was a violation of multiple resolutions of the UN Security Council, and accused Iran of preventing the resumption of negotiations over its nuclear programme. “We keep on trying to get … serious negotiations to start, but so far Iran has not responded,” Breins said.

As Iran starts to feel the effects of sanctions, it has threatened to shut the Strait of Hormuz, which is an outlet of 40 percent of the world’s traded oil. This threat has caused a response from the US, which a few days ago said it would take action to open the Strait if Iran sought to block it.

The US imposed additional sanctions on Iran last month and the European Union is expected to agree on a ban on imports of Iranian crude oil later this month.

In related news, Iran accused Israel and the United States of carrying out the assassination yesterday of 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, an Iranian nuclear scientists. “The bomb was a magnetic one and the same as the ones previously used for the assassination of the scientists, and the work of the Zionists (Israel),” Deputy Tehran Governor Safarali Baratloo was quoted as saying.  While Israel declined to comment, the US has denied its involvement.