UN To Vote On New Iran Sanctions Today

Wednesday, June 9, 2010 at 10:26 am

UNITED NATIONS : The UN Security Council is set to slap new sanctions on Iran on Wednesday for refusing to rein in its suspect nuclear program, despite warnings from Tehran it will break off talks on the standoff.

After months of behind-the-scenes haggling, Mexican Ambassador Claude Heller, who chairs the 15-member council this month, said a draft resolution on fresh sanctions would go to a vote on Wednesday at 10:00 am (1400 GMT).

“I think it is fair (to say) that these are the most significant sanctions that Iran has ever faced,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters during a visit to Ecuador.

The resolution’s six co-sponsors — the five council permanent members Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States along with Germany — say they have more than the nine votes needed to adopt the text.

It would be the fourth set of UN sanctions imposed on Iran in recent years, as the international community has struggled — and failed — to curb the Islamic republic’s nuclear ambitions.

Iran insists its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful civilian purposes, while the Western nations have led accusations that it is seeking to develop an atomic weapon.

According to the US-drafted text, the resolution would broaden three earlier sets of sanctions slapped on Iran, the last of which adopted on March 3, 2008.

UN To Vote On New Iran Sanctions Today

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