WASHINGTON (AFP) ââ¬â The United States is drafting a new sanctions resolution against Tehran, the State Department said Tuesday, just days before a meeting of major powers regarding Iran’s controversial atomic aims.
"What we’re doing is working on the elements of a resolution … We put down on paper some of those ideas, what it might — what a resolution might look like," spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"And we’re having ongoing discussions on that with" the five permanent members of the Security Council (United States, Russia, China, Britain and France) as well as Germany.
The meeting is to take place Friday in Washington, hosted by the State Department’s third top ranking diplomat Nicholas Burns, and the countries will be represented by their foreign ministries’ political directors.
"This is going to be topic A. And we’re going to talk about the elements of a resolution, as well as the timing of a resolution," McCormack said, adding that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to have a meeting in New York on September 28 with her counterparts from the same group.
"We hope that these meetings and any intervening discussions will move the ball forward. The process hasn’t moved as quickly as we would have liked, but that is par for the course with the Security Council resolutions," he said.
The UN Security Council has adopted three resolutions against Iran. Two of them include sanctions due to the Islamic republic’s refusal to halt sensitive uranium enrichment activities amid US suspicions it may be covertly working on a nuclear bomb.
