AFP: A new UN resolution against Iran should deepen current sanctions and could pave the way for other action over its nuclear program, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday. WASHINGTON (AFP) A new UN resolution against Iran should deepen current sanctions and could pave the way for other action over its nuclear program, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday.
The UN Security Council was Monday holding informal talks on a draft text agreed last week by foreign ministers of the council’s five veto-wielding permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany.
Asked if the text hammered out in Germany last week fell short of US expectations, Rice replied it was “no secret that a resolution of that kind is a negotiated product” that reconciles different views.
“The important thing is that it both deepens … sanctions against Iran and opens the possibility of new directions, like for instance the possibility of cargo inspections,” Rice told a press conference with Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith.
The draft resolution would form the basis of a third set of economic and trade sanctions against Iran for defying Security Council demands to stop uranium enrichment activities.
But Tehran on Monday warned of ‘serious consequences” if it is adopted.
