UNITED NATIONS: Six major powers papered over differences over Iran and agreed yesterday to submit a new Security Council draft resolution confirming existing UN sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear defiance.
“Our intention is to confirm all previous decisions,” Sergei Lavrov told reporters after meeting with his counterparts from Britain, China, France, the US and Germany here.
He was referring to the three previous rounds of Security Council sanctions slapped on Iran for its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear fuel work.
British Foreign Secretary David Milliband told reporters after the meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly: “We will be presenting a short resolution for consultations today that reaffirms existing resolutions and the unity of the E3+3.”
The British top diplomat said the six powers’ agreement on the draft also showed “our determination to take forward that strategy with further discussions and further steps.”
A top German diplomat welcomed the six’s agreement on the text as “an important sign of unity on Iran.”
Foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the Security Council — Russia, China, France, Britain and the US — plus Germany initially planned to meet here on Thursday to weigh new
sanctions against Tehran.
But that meeting was called off after Moscow complained Washington sought to “punish” it, apparently over Georgia.
Moscow also cited US refusal to hold meetings this week of the Group of Eight industrial countries, composed of the US, Russia, Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Italy and Germany.
“We do not see any fire that requires us to toss everything aside and meet to discuss Iran’s nuclear program in the middle of a packed week at the United Nations General Assembly,” a Russian
Foreign Ministry statement said on Tuesday.
The war with Georgia, a US ally, led to the worst chill in relations between Moscow and Washington since the Cold War and prompted US officials to say Russia could face isolation.
But the US and Russia later appeared to climb down from the dispute, agreeing here to hold further ministerial-level meetings in the future on Iran’s nuclear program.
Yesterday, the foreign ministers of the six powers held an impromptu meeting at UN headquarters.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner confirmed after the meeting that a draft resolution on Iran would be submitted later in the day.
