Agence France Presse – Britain will keep Iran under pressure over its controversial nuclear program, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett pledged on Tuesday, insisting the squeeze on Tehran is starting to have an effect.
She said new United Nations sanctions had to be the next step up in pressure in order to encourage Iran to halt its uranium enrichment activities.
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany agreed last week on a package of new sanctions that are to be discussed by the full 15-member Security Council on Wednesday.
Beckett told parliament that the international community had sought "incremental and reversible" sanctions to encourage negotiation, rather than continued defiance.
If a UN resolution was carried, it would be a "further indication to the government of Iran that yes, there is a choice open to them, but to choose to remain as they are is not cost-free.
"There are some indications that there is now beginning to be some concern among the government and major players in Iran that the course of action they are pursuing is continuing to be resisted by the international community — in away that it would appear they had not expected.
"We will search for opportunities to keep up the pressure. The government of Iran has consistently claimed that what they seek and why they are carrying out enrichment and reprocessing is to have access to modern, civil nuclear power.
"Access to such power is available to them through peaceful means through the international community in a way that would be completely acceptable.
"We will continue to press Iran to pursue that course."
To retain European Union consensus, Britain would rather get a UN resolution "which doesn’t go quite as far as some would want, than to have a resolution on which we are divided," she said.
Britain would "maintain the maximum amount of pressure to make our stance as strong as possible, mindful of the wish to maintain agreement," Beckett insisted.
The new punitive measures agreed by the six powers would ban Iran from exporting arms, call for voluntary trade sanctions on Tehran and expand a list of officials and companies targeted for financial and travel restrictions.
Tehran has defied the UN’s calls to suspend uranium enrichment, insisting that its nuclear programme is a peaceful effort to generate electricity.
