Bloomberg: The U.S., Russia, China and their European partners will offer a draft United Nations resolution repeating their strategy of offering Iran economic incentives to halt nuclear work, backed by sanctions, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.
By Viola Gienger
Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) — The U.S., Russia, China and their European partners will offer a draft United Nations resolution repeating their strategy of offering Iran economic incentives to halt nuclear work, backed by sanctions, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.
The new measure restates demands in three existing UN resolutions and "reaffirms the unity" of the six nations involved in the diplomacy on Iran, Miliband told reporters in New York.
The measure won't seek new sanctions on Iran, Miliband said. Iran already faces curbs on financing and supplies that might support its nuclear and missile programs. The action on a new resolution came after a previously unannounced meeting in New York today on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly's annual gathering.
Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters the resolution is a show of unity and possibly would be voted on by the Security Council tomorrow. The six countries involved in the Iran diplomatic push are: the U.S., Russia, China, France and Britain — all permanent members of the Security Council — plus Germany.
"There is some concern that the six is not functioning, so in order to dispel those concerns, they decided to introduce this very brief draft resolution, which would simply reconfirm the previous decisions of the Security Council," Churkin said.
A scheduled meeting on Iran earlier this week was canceled amid friction between the U.S. and Russia over the conflict in Georgia. The two countries later said they wanted to show the world some sign of continued unity as Iran defies international demands to suspend uranium enrichment.
"The two-track process remains in place, which is very important if we're going to resolve issues with Iran," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters after the governments met.
The Iranian government maintains that its nuclear development work, carried out at several major facilities, is intended solely to create a domestic nuclear power industry.
