Soviets Put Brakes on Push for U.N. Sanctions on Iran

The Soviet Union on Thursday dashed U.S. hopes for speedy Security Council action to impose sanctions on Iran when a Soviet official urged a continuing dialogue with both sides of the seven-year-old Iran-Iraq War.

Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Petrovsky told a press conference that Moscow considers U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar’s peace mission to Tehran and Baghdad “very positive,” although he declined to specify what progress he saw toward the goal of a cease-fire.

Iraq has expressed willingness to accept the Security Council’s Resolution 598 ordering the two countries to cease hostilities and withdraw from occupied territories. Iran has generally been negative but has not made any clear-cut public response, and Perez de Cuellar’s report to the council has been kept confidential.

The report is generally believed to offer little cause for optimism. Members have indicated privately that Iran flatly refused the council’s request for withdrawal of its troops from occupied Iraqi territory. The Iranians were reported also to have sought conditions for their agreement to a cease-fire, such as a swift assignment of blame by the council for the party responsible for starting the war.

In the words of one European official, the Iranians expressed only a willingness to negotiate a cease-fire and other issues.

“Maybe we’ll get a better offer from (Iranian President) Ali Khamenei when he speaks to the General Assembly next Tuesday,” the official said.

“Don’t rush things,” Petrovsky told a questioner who asked if the Soviet Union would support sanctions to pressure Iran into accepting the council’s July 20 resolution.

“We must continue the dialogue,” the Soviet official said. “We support a balanced effort, the aim of which will be to stop the war.”

Although the U.S. mission maintained that nothing has changed in Washington’s determination to press for sanctions against Iran, a U.S. official privately conceded that almost no other members of the 15-nation Security Council agree.

“The Soviets cooperated in July because they panicked when it looked as if Iraq was on the point of collapse,” said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition that he not be identified. “When the situation seemed to stabilize after that, the Soviets became much less anxious to offend Iran.”

The U.S. official said the West European allies who are also permanent members of the council--Britain and France--have also turned cautious despite their willingness to dispatch minesweepers to the gulf. A spokesman at the British U.N. Mission confirmed reports from London that Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe said that the next step toward ending the war may have to be an arms embargo “sooner rather than later.”

However, he also made clear that Britain wants a collective decision by all five permanent members of the council and that there would have to be further intensive discussions during next week’s General Assembly session before any action was agreed upon.

China, the fifth permanent member of the council, opposed sanctions from the beginning even though it joined in the unanimous cease-fire resolution, which calls simply for the council “to meet again as necessary to consider further steps to ensure compliance.”

West Germany, one of the 10 elected members of the council, was reported equally reluctant to back sanctions against Iran. Nonaligned members of the group, led by council President James V. Gbeho of Ghana, have also been hesitant to follow the U.S. push for tougher actions.