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U.N. Security Council agrees to discuss sanctions against Iran

A U.S. official says incentives are still on the table, but so far Iran is pushing nations toward sanctions.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 12, 2006

VIENNA - The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council agreed Wednesday to start working on U.N. sanctions against Iran next week but failed to bridge differences on how harsh the penalties should be, diplomats and officials said.

The anonymous diplomats and government officials told the Associated Press that while the United States called for broad sanctions to punish Iran's defiance in pursuing its nuclear program, Russian and Chinese representatives at a top-level Vienna meeting favored less severe measures.

The repeated attempts by the five Security Council countries and Germany to entice Iran to enter negotiations finally broke down last week over Tehran's refusal to give up uranium enrichment.

In New York, U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told the Council on Foreign Relations that the incentives package meant to persuade Iran to halt enrichment is still on the table.

But he said Iran's stance left little choice but to "head back to the Security Council in a couple of days, at the end of this week or early next ... to begin the process of writing and then passing, we hope, a sanctions resolution that will raise the cost to the Iranians of what they are doing in the nuclear round."

Iran, the No. 2 producer of crude among the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is apparently ready to face the threat of sanctions because it is confident they will be more symbolic than damaging because of international concerns any tough penalties could prompt Tehran to retaliate by cutting off oil exports.

Restating his country's defiance, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by state television Wednesday as saying "the day sanctions are imposed on Iran by its enemies would be a day of national celebration for the Iranian nation."

In separate comments earlier, Ahmadinejad called the prospect of sanctions "a hollow threat."

"The Security Council has no right to intervene," he said.

[Last modified October 12, 2006, 00:26:43]