Washington, June 07: Amid a US-led push for a new set of tough sanctions against Iran, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claims Tehran is likely to pull a “stunt” in the upcoming days to obstruct fresh embargos.
As she prepared to leave for a trip to Latin America on Monday, Clinton told reporters that Tehran has shown in the past that it will stop at nothing to “avoid being held accountable” over its nuclear activities.
“I don’t think anybody should be surprised if they (Iran) try to divert attention once again from the unity within the Security Council,” the former first lady said.
“I think we’ll see Iran say …’wait a minute, wait a minute look at what we’re going to do’ in a bid to thwart sanctions,” she added. “They’ve consistently tried to avoid being held accountable.”
Over the past years, Washington has been in the vanguard of a campaign against Iran’s nuclear program — which has been portrayed as a threat in the West regardless of repeated assurances from the International Atomic Energy Agency on the non-diversion of nuclear material in the country.
Earlier in May, Iran issued a declaration under which it would send about half of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in return for fuel rods for its research reactor in Tehran.
Only a day after the declaration was made public, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) — Britain, China, France, Russia and the US — unanimously agreed on a new resolution for a fourth round of sanctions against Iran.
The newly-drafted resolution calls on Tehran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities or face further UNSC sanctions.
The resolution, however, has failed to win support in Brazil and Turkey, two non-permanent members of the Security Council that played a key role in the making of the Tehran declaration.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reacted to the proposed sanctions resolution on Saturday, saying that “under no circumstances” would Iran give up its rights to enrich uranium for civilian applications.
——-Agencies