06 September 2006
Sanctions Next Step Toward Resolving Iranian Nuclear Standoff
United States remains committed to diplomatic resolution, State's Joseph says
Washington – The international community must close ranks to make clear to Iran’s government the consequences of its refusal to stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons, a top State Department official says.
“Sanctions represent the next step in our diplomacy, as the United States continues to work with others to persuade Iran to change its course and abandon its nuclear weapons program,” Robert Joseph, under secretary of state for arms control and international security, told journalists September 6. (See related article.)
Joseph said that a nuclear-armed Iran would be “intolerable” to the international community, and would produce further destabilization in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region.
By ignoring its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and refusing to cooperate with the United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran also threatens decades of international partnership to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and materials, he said.
Despite Iran’s claims that its nuclear program is aimed at developing civil nuclear power, Joseph said the country has been under IAEA investigation since 2002, when the agency discovered that the Iranian regime had been pursuing a “covert, deceptive program” to develop the technologies needed to produce highly enriched uranium and plutonium suitable for nuclear weapons. (See related article.)
While refusing to grant full access to U.N. inspectors, Iran continues to manufacture nuclear materials by expanding its stock of centrifuges and building a heavy-water nuclear reactor. It also maintains “a very sophisticated and very capable network … to acquire these sensitive technologies,” Joseph added.
“The many questions that have been raised by Iran's nuclear program have simply not been resolved, and the bottom line is that the IAEA is unable to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program,” Joseph said.
It is for this reason, Joseph said, that the international community should reject the Iranian leadership’s claims that the current standoff represents an effort to deny Iran the right to develop peaceful nuclear technology.
“We recognize the right of all nations to civilian nuclear energy, provided they meet their NPT obligations and not pursue nuclear weapons,” the under secretary said, but “Iran's covert activities, its repeated breaches of its safeguards obligations and its failure to cooperate fully with the IAEA have led to a lack of confidence by the international community with respect to Iran's nuclear intentions.”
After two years of intensive negotiations between Iran and the European negotiating team from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom failed to convince Iran to abandon its nuclear enrichment activities, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States -- were joined by Germany in the “P5+1,” team, which offered Iran a package of incentives to stop its nuclear enrichment programs, including support to help Iran develop the civil nuclear power capability that its leaders claimed to be their goal. (See related article.)
“This is the choice that Iran should have made,” Joseph said. “This is the choice that would be of greatest benefit to the Iranian people.”
In support of its offer, the U.N. Security Council on July 31 also passed Resolution 1696, which expressed the council’s intention to adopt appropriate measures under Article 41 of Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter should Iran refuse to suspend all enrichment-related activities by August 31. (See related article.)
“That deadline,” Joseph said, “has now passed. And since Iran has not taken the steps required by the IAEA and the Security Council, it is now essential that we move to adopt sanctions against Iran.” (See related article.)
Joseph said that the State Department’s under secretary of state for political affairs, R. Nicholas Burns, was scheduled to meet with his P5+1 counterparts September 7 to discuss next steps.
Although discussion will focus on the specifics of the international community’s response, the “fundamental bargain has been struck,” Joseph said, as reflected in Security Council Resolution 1696.
“Sanctions are what you do next in terms of the diplomatic approach,” the under secretary said. “Iran must understand that there are consequences for its defiance of the IAEA board and for its defiance of the Security Council.”
International sanctions might be imposed in a graduated fashion beginning with targeted denials of international support for technologies linked to developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and missile programs, he said. “We are doing everything that we can to block the transfer of those technologies into Iran,” Joseph said, noting both efforts to help countries develop robust export controls as well as efforts to interdict illegal transfers of WMD and related technologies under the Proliferation Security Initiative and similar efforts. (See related article.)
But Joseph also hinted that it might not be too late for Iran to change its mind, suspend nuclear enrichment and reconsider the incentive package.
“We have made clear that if Iran does suspend its enrichment activities, we are willing to join with the other members of the P-5 and Germany to sit down and talk about the incentives package,” he said.
A transcript of Joseph’s briefing is available from the State Department Web site.
For more information, see International Security, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, and Middle East and North Africa.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
