UNITED NATIONS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The 15-member UN
Security Council will have consultations on Wednesday afternoon to discuss
possible sanctions against Iran as key council members came closer on Tuesday to
agree on major points of a draft resolution.
"On 5 p.m. tomorrow afternoon (GMT 2200), the P5 (the
five permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States)
will brief us and give us whatever draft they have, whether they agreed or not,"
said South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, the council's president for
March.
On the Iranian president's stated intention of
speaking to a Security Council meeting, Kumalo said so far he has not received a
letter from the government making such a request.
Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham
said Monday that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, wants to attend a
meeting of the UN Security Council to defend the country's nuclear program.
Walking out of chambers at the UN headquarters where
the P5 and Germany held talks on Iran Tuesday, U.S. acting representative
Alejandro Wolff admitted that there are still issues that delegations have not
been able to agree on.
"Not all delegations had instruction today, so we are
still not at a point where we can say we have agreed on an overall approach,"
Wolff said.
British Ambassador Jones Parry said experts from the
six countries will meet on Tuesday afternoon while ambassadors will continue
their talks on Wednesday.
"We are close as we were last night. we are still
working on it," Parry said. "There are no difficulties, there are just one or
two issues to be resolved. I am still optimistic as I was yesterday."
After talks on Monday, Parry claimed that the six
nations had made substantial progress.
Talks among the six nations on the draft resolution
have dragged on for the last two weeks in New York. New punitive measures
against Iran would include an expanded travel ban on officials involved in the
nuclear program, an arms embargo, and tightened economic and financial
sanctions, UN diplomats said.
The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1737 on
Dec. 23, 2006, demanding Iran stop all enrichment-related and reprocessing
activities including research and development and work on all heavy
water-related projects in 60 days.
On Feb. 22, the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) said in a report filed in Vienna to its 35-nation board of governors and
the UN Security Council that "Iran has not suspended its enrichment-related
activities."
Washington has accused Tehran of trying to develop
nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian program, a charge that Iran
denies.
TEHRAN, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian official on
Tuesday kept defiance toward further sanctions by the United Nations Security
Council, vowing Tehran would not suspend the sensitive uranium enrichment work.
"We don't welcome (UN) to adopt another resolution, but
there's no need to worry," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told a
press conference.
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