UNSC to vote on Iran next week

The White House says the UN Security Council is expected to vote on a US-proposed resolution that calls for tougher Iran sanction.

“We’ve seen sanctions introduced in the UN Security Council that we believe will be voted on next week and approved by the UN Security Council,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

On Wednesday, Mexico’s ambassador to the UNSC said that the vote on the resolution could come within the next 10 days.

Ambassador Claude Heller, who is currently president of the Security Council this month, said that the council has been discussing the US-drafted text and the 10 non-permanent members are awaiting annexes that list the names of individuals and firms to be placed on a UN blacklist.

The draft resolution was proposed by the US last month only one day after Iran, Turkey, and Brazil signed the Tehran declaration.

Despite the declaration, Washington and its European allies, which accuse Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program, demanded that the sanctions remain on the table unless Iran suspends its enrichment activities.

Iran rejects the allegations, saying that as an IAEA member and a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) it has the right to a peaceful nuclear program.

Tehran has also stressed that there is no clause in the IAEA statute nor the NPT that would require it to suspend enrichment on demand.