IRAN:THE UN Security Council imposed a third round of sanctions on Iran yesterday for refusing to suspend sensitive nuclear activities but Tehran dismissed the council's decision as illegal and illegitimate. There were 14 votes in favour, no votes against and one country, Indonesia, abstained. Previous sanctions resolutions were adopted unanimously in December 2006 and March 2007.
The resolution calls for more travel and financial restrictions on named Iranian individuals and companies and makes some restrictions mandatory.
Diplomats describe it as a moderate tightening of the screws from the two previous ones. They said this was the most Washington could get after a surprising US intelligence report, released in December, stated that Iran had scrapped its atom bomb programme in 2003.
Tehran denies Western charges that it is seeking nuclear weapons and has ignored three previous Security Council resolutions demanding that it freeze its uranium enrichment programme, which can produce fuel for nuclear power plants or atomic weapons.
The five permanent council members - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - and Germany, which is not on the council, agreed in Berlin on January 22nd on a draft text outlining a third round of sanctions against Tehran.
Washington had hoped for a swift vote on the sanctions text, but negotiations dragged on for a month and a half until yesterday's meeting of the council, which adopted the resolution.
Libya, Vietnam and South Africa, as well as Indonesia, had expressed reservations about the resolution, but vigorous Western lobbying managed to persuade all except Jakarta.
Iran dismissed the current and previous sanctions resolutions as violations of international law and said that they only harmed the 15-nation Security Council's credibility.