|
Trending Topics
|
UN Resolution Seen as Launching Pad for Stricter Iran Sanctions
(Los Angeles Times) Paul Richter - The Obama administration signaled Wednesday that the U.S. would accept weakened UN sanctions against Iran as a way to quickly assemble a broad international coalition against Tehran's nuclear program. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said, "What is important about the UN resolution is less the specific content of the resolution than the isolation of Iran by the rest of the world." He said a Security Council resolution "provides a new legal platform" for individual nations or groups, such as the EU, to take more stringent action. In that way, the UN resolution acts as a "launching pad" for economic strictures that are much tougher than those adopted by the UN. Some foreign diplomats have been predicting for weeks that the Obama administration and its allies would take what they could get, then look ahead to sanctions from individual countries or groups of nations. The Security Council vote, even if weak, "gives you an international blessing that is worth a lot," said one diplomat representing a government that supports sanctions.