"Targeted sanctions" key tool in US strategy on Iran

U.N. Security Council, United Nations.

By Michael Adler
AFP
VIENNA
Petroleumworld.com 02 07 06

The United States and Europe will seek "targeted sanctions" if the crisis escalates over an Iranian nuclear program Washington fears hides atomic weapons delopment, analysts and diplomats told AFP.

Western diplomats have spoken of "graduated" responses at the UN Security Council, ranging from statements urging cooperation to full economic sanctions.

"The United States really seems to want to try this idea of first (in terms of sanctions) banning the travel of Iranians in the nuclear program and then in the leadership," rather than a full economic boycott, non-proliferation analyst David Albright said.

A European diplomat, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, confirmed that this was also the thinking of Britain, France and Germany which spearhead the European Union's efforts on Iran.

"It may work," Albright said from Washington, noting that some European banks are already ceasing business with Iran for fear of a campaign of sanctions.

Albright said the United States has learned from Iraq and wants to try sanctions "that do not hurt common Iranians. It is still a battle for the hearts and minds of Iranians."

He also said targeted sanctions could limit any confrontation and keep major oil producer Iran from withholding supply as a weapon to drive prices higher on the already strained world market.

The UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voted Saturday to report Iran to the Security Council in an move that opens the door to punitive action.

The IAEA also called on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and cooperate with agency inspectors but Iran reacted by saying it would limit cooperation and carry out enrichment, which makes what can be nuclear reactor fuel or atom bomb material.

But the IAEA resolution put off any UN action against Iran for at least a month, to give time for diplomacy until the Vienna-based IAEA's next meeting in March.

A Western diplomat said that if and when the time comes for action by the Security Council, which unlike the IAEA has enforcement powers, the United States is proposing a four-stage approach.

It would first try a Council presidential statement asking Iran to heed IAEA calls to suspend sensitive nuclear fuel work and cooperate fully with a now three-year-old IAEA investigation, the diplomat said.

If Iran did not heed this call, stage two would be a Council resolution "invoking Chapter 7 of the UN charter which gives the Council the legal authority to require member states to take specific actions," the diplomat said.

At this point, IAEA calls "will become a legal requirement," said the diplomat.

If Iran did not meet this legal requirement, stage three would involve sanctions "targeted only on Iran's nuclear program and the regime's leadership," the diplomat said.

"For instance, the 100 top leaders of the regime would be banned from traveling outside Iran," the diplomat said.

Foreign bank accounts of Iran's atomic energy agency would be frozen and Iranian nuclear scientists would be stopped from working abroad.

"The Iranian nuclear program and the Iranian leadership would be totally isolated," the diplomat said.

Stage four would involve "wider economic sanctions on Iran, such as cutting off imports, cutting off all financial transactions," said the diplomat.

The diplomat did not mention military action although US President George W. Bush has said this remains a possibility.

Iranian allies and trading partners Russia and China, which have vetoes on the Council, have said they oppose sanctions but diplomats hinted that after closing ranks with the West to back the IAEA resolution, these two nations would now accept at least the first part of the four-stage approach.

AFP 02 06 06

Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved

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