[8月5日] US Warns of Further Sanctions Against Iran
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State Department
04 August 2008
The United States says major world powers will have no choice but to pursue new sanctions against Iran in the absence of a positive reply to their offer of incentives for it to halt uranium enrichment. The State Department says a written response to the offer is expected Tuesday. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.
With a two-week deadline for an Iranian reply having passed over the weekend, senior diplomats of the five permanent U.N. Security Council member countries and Germany conferred by telephone and renewed their warning of further sanctions against Iran.
The so-called P Five Plus One offered Iran an enhanced package of incentives in June, including aid for a civil nuclear program, if it dropped a uranium-enrichment project the United States and European allies believe is weapons related.
Iran was non-committal about the offer at a July 19 meeting in Geneva and was given an additional two weeks to respond.
In a talk with reporters, Acting State Department Spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili has told European Union chief diplomat Javier Solana Iran will give a reply in writing on Tuesday.
Gallegos said the major powers are disappointed at the lack of a response thus far, and he made clear that if Tuesday's reply is not positive, Iran can expect more sanctions:
"We remain committed to both tracks of the P Five Plus One dual-track strategy," said Gonzalo Gallegos. "Accordingly, we agreed in the absence of a clear, positive response from Iran that we have no choice but to pursue further measures against Iran as part of this strategy. Iran has a clear choice: engagement or isolation. The P Five Plus One incentives package contained everything Iran needed to pursue a modern civil power nuclear program which Iran's leaders claim is their aim."
