[8月7日] Major Powers to Seek New Sanctions Against Iran

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By David Gollust
State Department
06 August 2008
The five permanent U.N. Security Council member countries and Germany, the P-Five-plus-One, agreed Wednesday to consider new sanctions against Iran after another ambiguous Iranian response to their offer of incentives to halt uranium enrichment. The United States says a written Iranian response this week was a stalling tactic. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.
 
The announcement that the P-Five-plus-One will begin the process of seeking another sanctions resolution followed a telephone conference call of senior diplomats of the major powers, including U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns.

The political directors examined a one-page Iranian response sent Tuesday to European Union chief diplomat Javier Solana to an enhanced incentives package first presented in June, aimed at getting Iran to stop what U.S. officials believe is a weapons-related uranium enrichment project.

Iranian response viewed as stalling tactic

Iran was given additional time to respond after an ambiguous reply to the big-power diplomats in Geneva July 19. Both U.S. and European Union officials say the latest Iranian note again fails to give a definitive reply.

In a talk with reporters, State Department Acting Spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said the lack of a clear answer, once again, is very disappointing.

The letter we received yesterday appears to be a stalling tactic, he noted. The P-Five-plus-One reaffirmed a commitment to the dual-track strategy, and are agreed but we have no choice but to pursue further measures again Iran as part of this strategy. Given the absence of a clear, positive response from Iran and its failure to meet the deadline, the P5 plus one are discussing next steps in the U.N. Security Council and are beginning to consider the possible outlines of another resolution.