US hails imposition of UN sanctions against Iran

Washington, Dec 24, (UNI) The United States has welcomed the UN Security Council's unanimous decision to impose sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend nuclear enrichment programmes.

Talking to newsmen in a conference-call shortly after the council's 15-0 vote yesterday, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R Nicholas Burns called the resolution 'significant' and said, ''we want the international community to take further action and we are certainly not going to put all of our eggs in the UN basket.'' ''We're going to try to convince countries, especially the European Union countries, Japan to consider some of the financial measures that we have undertaken. We'd like to see countries stop doing business as usual with Iran,'' he added.

Mr Burns said the Security Council vote should clear the way for further steps by countries that had argued they could not act in the absence of prior United Nations' action.

He cited as an example that '10 or 11' European nations have extended substantial export credits to Iran.

''We would like countries to stop selling arms to Iran. We would like countries to try to limit export credits to Iran.'' The Secretary specifically called on Russia and China, two nations that have been far less inclined towards imposing sanctions on the Iranian regime than the United States has been, to take additional steps to follow on the Security Council's action.

''Russia and China tell us that they want to deny Iran a nuclear weapons capability. We need to see more vigorous action by both of them, '' he said.

''We would like to see an end of the business as usual, the export credits that I mentioned, the military sales that are still going on,'' he added.

Before the Security Council vote, US President George W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin had discussed the Iran issue over the phone.

Mr Burns said acknowledged that the resolution was not as comprehensive as the United States might have wanted, and said if the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports a lack of Iranian compliance by a February 21, 2007, deadline, ''then the council has an obligation to take stronger sanctions in the future''.

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