More sanctions on Iran proposed

Britain and France formally introduced a Security Council resolution Thursday calling for a third round of sanctions against Iran over its failure to suspend uranium enrichment.

The United States pushed hardest for the sanctions, but China and Russia, the other permanent members of the 15-nation council, have been in general agreement on them.

Those five nations and Germany had circulated a draft calling for bans on travel and equipment to Iran that can be used in civilian and nuclear programs, more monitoring of Iran’s financial institutions and inspection of air and sea cargo.

Iran says it will deal only with the United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency, which found in November that Tehran generally had been truthful about aspects of its nuclear history. But the new resolution encourages the European Union to continue working with Iran “with a view to create necessary conditions for resuming talks.”

The latest revision makes some changes. “The text that we’ve circulated today reflects some of the comments we’ve had back from delegations,” said John Sawers, Britain’s ambassador to the U.N. “This is as part of our twin-track approach of requiring Iran to suspend their most sensitive nuclear activities, and to abide by the requests of the IAEA for full transparency.”

South Africa, Libya and Indonesia have expressed reservations with the initial text, saying they preferred to wait for an IAEA report on Iran that is expected this week.

Iran says its enrichment activities are intended only to produce fuel for nuclear reactors to produce electricity.