Agence France Presse – Major powers on Thursday made minor changes to a new draft resolution toughening UN sanctions on Iran and readied the text for a Security Council vote expected to take place Saturday, diplomats said.
The 15-member Security Council met behind closed doors late Thursday to consider changes made to the text agreed last week by the council’s five veto-wielding permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany.
"We don’t plan a vote tomorrow but our intention is that there should be a vote Saturday," Britain’s UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry told reporters after the meeting. "We’ll meet tomorrow for one final consideration. But the text is in blue," indicating it is ready for an imminent vote.
"The sponsors presented us with a text that took some of the amendments offered by South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar and left out others," said South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, who chairs the council this month.
"We are disappointed because we made the amendments in good faith," Kumalo said. "We expected they would give our capitals a chance to look at what they could accommodate … I don’t know what is left for my minister to do."
The draft under consideration would ban Tehran from exporting arms, calls for voluntary trade sanctions and expands a list of officials and companies targeted for financial and travel restrictions.
The sponsors rejected South Africa’s suggestions for a 90-day suspension of UN sanctions to allow political negotiations with Tehran and removal of the weapons ban and many of the financial sanctions.
A proposal by Indonesia and Qatar to include in the draft a paragraph recalling the goal of a "Middle East free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery" also was dismissed.
The sponsors, however, agreed to add language underlining that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear monitoring agency, "is internationally competent for verifying compliance with safeguards agreements, including the non-diversion of nuclear material for non-peaceful purposes."
Their text also restated that an offer of generous economic and diplomatic incentives made by the six powers to Iran last year if it halts uranium enrichment "remains on the table".
But Kumalo rejected the changes as "cosmetic."
US acting ambassador Alejandro Wolff said: "We embraced amendments that were consistent with the philosophy of the resolution, which is built on a framework of two previous resolutions and those that would enhance its clarity that would add to its value."
Wolff said those amendments "not in keeping with the architecture in place" were rejected.
"We have improved the text," French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said. "Our hope is that the text can be adopted by unanimity."
