The United Nations Security Council is preparing to vote on a resolution to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Tehran over its disputed nuclear programme.
“First of all, I’m optimistic that the Security Council will vote a resolution. I’ve been away from Washington too long, too many days, to know whether tomorrow or the next day is the most likely, but I am hopeful that a resolution will be passed very soon,” he said after talks with Britain’s Defence Secretary Liam Fox in London.
“One of the many benefits of the resolution is that it will provide a legal platform for individual nations to then take additional actions that go well beyond the resolution itself. I believe that a number of nations are prepared to act pretty promptly,” Gates added.
“I do not think we have lost the opportunity to stop the Iranians from having nuclear weapons.”
Iran says its nuclear program is purely for peaceful generation of electricity
Western powers fear that Iran’s atomic program masks a bid to build nuclear weapons. Tehran denies this, saying the program is aimed at peaceful energy generation, which it insists it has the right to pursue.
Last month, Turkey and Brazil brokered a deal under which Iran agreed to ship 1,200 kilograms (2,640 pounds) of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Turkey in return for high-enriched uranium fuel for the Tehran reactor that would be supplied later by Russia and France.
But the accord drew a cool reaction from world powers led by the United States.
The sponsors of the sanctions resolution are pressing ahead with their text without the backing of Brazil and Turkey, two non-permanent council members who insist that fresh sanctions would be counter-productive.
Published in the Express Tribune, June 9th, 2010.
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