Washington, December 12: The United States, Britain and France warned that Iran risks increased sanctions unless it immediately complies with a series of Security Council resolutions regarding its nuclear program.
Ambassadors from the three countries made their comments at a Security Council meeting after a sanctions committee report to the council yesterday found an “apparent pattern of sanctions violations involving prohibited arms transfers” over the past three months.
“There is no longer any reason to wait” to consider deeper sanctions, France’s Ambassador to the UN Geraud Araud told the council.
While yesterday’s report dealt mainly with the interdiction of two vessels carrying weapons from Iran and headed for Syria, recent revelations of an undeclared uranium enrichment plant near the city of Qom and Iran’s recent declaration that it intends to build 10 more enrichment plants stirred the most concern among diplomats.
“If Iran continues to do everything it can to violate five Security Council resolutions, if it continues to refuse the slightest confidence measures, to refuse dialogue, transparency after the major revelations that have just been made, we must draw all of the necessary conclusions and that means we must move on to a new resolution involving sanctions,” Araud said.
—Agencies