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Rice highlights 'full range' of weapons open to UN against Iran
By Sylvie Lanteaume
AFP
WASHINGTON
Petroleumworld.com 04 14 06US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday the United Nations must take action against Iran's nuclear programme and highlighted part of the UN charter that allows sanctions to escalate into military action.
Rice said that faced with Iran's repeated refusal to halt activities that Washington suspects hides work towards making a nuclear bomb, the United States "will look at the full range of options available to the United Nations".
"There is no doubt that Iran continues to defy the will of the international community," Rice said, speaking after Iran's hardline regime dismissed appeals from the UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei to freeze its controversial research.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was in Tehran to appeal for an end to uranium enrichment that is a major step in any bomb programme.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed there was "no room for defeat and retreat" over the nuclear work he insists is peaceful.
But Rice declared: "When the Security Council reconvenes, there will have to be some consequence for that action."
She suggested chapter seven of the UN Charter which sets out specific action that can be taken when there is a threat to international peace or an act of aggression.
"One thing the Security Council has, and the IAEA does not have, is the ability to compel, through chapter seven resolutions, member states of the UN to obey the will of the international system," Rice said.
"And I'm certain that we'll look at measures that could be taken to ensure that Iran knows that they really have no choice but to comply."
A statement approved by the UN Security Council last month gives Iran until April 28 to comply with IAEA demands to suspend its programme. It will then consider follow-up action.
The chief US diplomat did not specifically call for any particular measure. US leaders this week said that reports of planned military action against Iraq were "wild speculation".
But chapter seven allows for a gradual increase of international pressure, up to military action.
Several resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council against Iraq, before the March 2003 US-led invasion, were taken under chapter seven.
Article 41 of the chapter allows for sanctions, including economic and transport measures or the severance of diplomatic relations.
Article 42 states that if those measures fail, the UN Security Council "may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security".
Rice condemned the Iranian negotiating ploy which US official say is to secure concessions and then still refuse to end the nuclear research.
"There is no doubt that Iran has continued salami-slicing tactics -- a little bit here, and then a little bit more, and then a little bit more -- despite the fact that the international community has said very clearly, 'Stop'," said the secretary of state.
"I want to just note that the Iranian regime is, of course, isolating itself. It is doing this despite the great desire of the international community to engage and to reach out to the Iranian people," said Rice.
AFP 04 13 06 2107 GMTCopyright © 1994-2006 Agence France-Presse. All Rights Reserved.
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