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U.S. pushes for Iran sanctions

Atul Aneja

DUBAI: The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany have begun crucial talks in London on Iran's nuclear programme.

The United States and Britain are leading the effort to "persuade" the rest of the participants to agree to a debate in the United Nations Security Council on imposition of sanctions against Iran.

Russia and China, however, have shown their reluctance to impose sanctions. On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the United States was complicating efforts to defuse the crisis surrounding Iran's atomic programme.

The Security Council has asked Iran to halt its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities and has offered Tehran a list of incentives as reward for compliance.

Iran has refused to suspend enrichment. However, reinforcing its assertion that it was not developing nuclear weapons, it has proposed that France could set up a joint consortium to enrich uranium on its soil. The U.S. has said that Iran was pursuing the development of atomic weapons under the cover of civilian nuclear programme.

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