Iran avoids new sanctions in UN council vote

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-28 10:19

UNITED NATIONS -- The UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution on Saturday that again orders Iran to halt nuclear enrichment work but imposes none of the new sanctions Washington and its allies want.

The UN Security Council holds a meeting on September 26, 2008 at UN headquarters in New York City. [Agencies]

The text was agreed to on Friday by the five permanent Security Council members, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, and Germany on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and later circulated to the full council.

The 18-line resolution calls on Iran to "comply fully and without delay" with previous council resolutions, which demand it halt enrichment, but also "reaffirms its commitment ... to an early negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear issue."

It also urges Iran to meet the requirements of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, which is investigating whether Iran had conducted research on an atomic weapon. The agency reported earlier this month Iran was not cooperating, but Tehran says it is.

Iran, which insists its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and will only be used to generate electricity, dismissed the resolution.

"Such moves are unwarranted and unconstructive," Iran's UN mission said in a statement. It added that all council moves on Tehran's nuclear program "lack not only fairness and objectivity, but also relevance and lawfulness."

It also made clear Tehran would not stop enriching, saying, "The Iranian nation will remain determined to exercise its inalienable rights for peaceful uses of nuclear technology."

US Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad welcomed the unanimous adoption of the resolution.

"It shows that ... the international community is united on this issue and Iran must cooperate," he told reporters. "It shows that the world regards this issue to be important."

Russia: No Military Option

Britain's Guardian newspaper cited European diplomats this week as saying that Israel gave serious thought earlier this year to a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites but was told by US President George W. Bush he would not support it.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the resolution made clear that military force was not an option in the dispute with Tehran. He said the new text reaffirmed earlier resolutions that avoid "any possibility of encouraging or contemplating a military solution to the Iranian nuclear issue."