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Nations weigh new Iran sanctions

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-07 00:03

WASHINGTON - Six nations agreed Wednesday to pursue new UN sanctions against Iran after it failed to accept incentives offered in hopes of defusing the dispute over its nuclear program, the State Department said.

The decision came during a conference call between senior diplomats from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said there was consensus in the group that Iran's latest reply to the offer was "very disappointing" and "a stalling tactic."

Related readings:  US: Iran's response to int'l offer unacceptable  Iran replies to six nations' nuke query  Iran responses to 5+1 package: report  US: Six major countries mull new sanctions against Iran

"We are very disappointed that Iran has yet again failed to give Javier Solana a clear answer to the ... generous incentives package," he told reporters. "We agreed that we have no choice but to pursue further measures against Iran."

"Given the absence of a clear, positive response from Iran, (the six countries) are discussing next steps in the UN Security Council and beginning to consider the possible outlines of another resolution," Gallegos said.

The council has already passed three sanctions resolutions against Iran. Despite that pressure and the threat of a fourth, it has yet to agree to stop enriching uranium in exchange for economic and other incentives being offered by the six countries: Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany. Uranium enrichment can produce the ingredients needed to build an atomic bomb.

Gallegos said the incentives were still on the table but stressed that participants in the conference call had been displeased by Iran's latest response to the offer, a one-page document which was submitted to Solana on Tuesday and was supposed to contain either an acceptance or rejection of the package.

The response repeated Iran's long-standing position that it has a right to peaceful nuclear activities and said it would not give a definitive answer to the offer until its own questions about it had been answered.

"The letter that we received yesterday appears to be a stalling tactic," Gallegos said.

US officials had dismissed the response as unacceptable on Tuesday, and earlier Wednesday the French Foreign Ministry said it was insufficient.

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