There Will Be Iran Sanctions
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told Luxembourgian Radio RTL yesterday that Iran will be subject to international sanctions. A day earlier, representatives of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, the United States, China, Great Britain and France) and Germany met in Paris and agreed that there will be a Security Council resolution on sanctions.
They have not agreed on the severity of those sanctions yet, however. “We made substantive progress on the scope of the sanctions targeting proliferation-sensitive activities. There remain several outstanding issues, upon which we will reflect over the coming days,” Douste-Blazy said.
The sanctions will be imposed under article 41, chapter 7, of the UN Charter. That clause allows for the severance of diplomatic, economic and transportation ties with an offending country. Douste-Blazy emphasized the importance of acting in one accord in relation to the future resolution and said that the question is “about the credibility of the Security Council.”
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack also expressed the hope that all 15 members of the Security Council would support the resolution. He noted, however, that “how a particular member of the Security Council votes is going to be up to them. If you do have a resolution that is enacted, it will be binding on all states regardless of whether or not they abstained or voted for it.”
Thus Russia and China, Iran's most ardent supporters and, until recently, the last holdouts against sanctions, will have the face-saving option of abstaining from voting without detriment to the resolution.
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All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 07, 2006
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