Iran sanctions futile: Syria FM

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem says the new round of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program will prove futile.

In an interview with the Syrian newspaper Al-Watan published on Sunday, Muallem stresses that the fourth round of punitive sanctions was not the solution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program.

“We, in Syria, still believe that the policy of imposing sanctions is not useful. The previous UN experiments have proved the failure of those policies,” Muallem was quoted as saying.

On Wednesday, the UN Security Council voted to adopt a US-drafted sanctions resolution against Iran over allegations that Tehran is secretly pursuing a military nuclear program – a charge Iran has repeatedly denied.

The move has drawn sharp criticism from Iranian officials who were calling on Western powers to respond to a May 17 tripartite nuclear fuel swap declaration.

The declaration, — issued jointly by Iran, Brazil and Turkey following pro-diplomacy talks in Tehran — proposes the shipment of 1,200 kg of Iran’s low enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for fuel for a medical research reactor.

Iran maintains that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it has the right to a peaceful nuclear program for civilian electricity generation and medical research.