Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday had admonished Russia at a news conference in Istanbul, where he was attending a summit along with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, to take care “not to be on the side of the enemies of the Iranian people.” Three diplomats familiar with the replies say they contain a series of questions that in effect stall any negotiations on the issue. The US, Russia and France have said the swap proposal negotiated by Brazil and Turkey would leave Iran with enough material to make a nuclear weapon. And they note that Iran intends to continue a new program of enriching uranium to a higher level.The diplomats spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because their information was confidential. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday called the proposed new UN sanctions against Iran’s suspect nuclear program the toughest ever, telling reporters in Ecuador’s capital that there is strong support for a fourth resolution penalizing Iran for its refusal to prove its nuclear program is peaceful and defying international demands to halt uranium enrichment.
“I think it is fair [to say] that these are the most significant sanctions that Iran has ever faced,” Clinton said at a news conference with Ecuador’s president. “The amount of unity that has been engendered by the international community is very significant.”
She declined to predict the outcome of the vote in the 15-member Security Council, but US Defense Secretary Robert Gates in London said the measure would pass and pave the way for tougher additional measures by the US and its allies. “The strategy here is a combination of diplomacy and pressure to persuade the Iranians that they are headed in the wrong direction in terms of their own security, that they will undermine their security by pursuit of nuclear weapons, not enhance it,” Gates said. In the final version of the UN resolution, obtained Monday by The Associated Press, sanctions would be tougher than previous penalties but still far short of crippling economic punishments or an oil embargo.
