Clinton: Iran sanctions toughest yet

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton called the proposed new United Nations sanctions against Iran’s suspect nuclear programme the toughest yet.

Her comments came a day before the UN Security Council was expected to vote on the measure.

Mrs Clinton told reporters in Ecuador’s capital Quito that there was strong support for a fourth resolution penalising Iran for its refusal to prove its nuclear programme was peaceful and defying international demands to halt uranium enrichment.

“I think it is fair (to say) that these are the most significant sanctions that Iran has ever faced,” she said at a news conference with Ecuador’s president.

“The amount of unity that has been engendered by the international community is very significant.”

Mrs Clinton declined to predict the outcome of the vote in the 15-member security council, but US defence secretary Robert Gates said in London the measure would pass and pave the way for tougher additional measures by the US and its allies.

“The strategy here is a combination of diplomacy and pressure to persuade the Iranians that they are headed in the wrong direction in terms of their own security, that they will undermine their security by pursuit of nuclear weapons, not enhance it,” Mr Gates said.

In the final version of the UN resolution, obtained on Monday by The Associated Press, sanctions would be tougher than previous penalties but still far short of crippling economic punishments or an oil embargo.

The sanctions would ban Iran from pursuing “any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons”, bar Iranian investment in activities such as uranium mining, and prohibit Iran from buying several categories of heavy weapons including attack helicopters and missiles.

Annexes to the resolution, agreed yesterday, would target 40 new Iranian companies or organisations, including 15 linked to Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard.

One person was added to the previous list of 40 Iranians subject to an asset freeze – Javad Rahiqi, who heads the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran’s Esfahan Nuclear Technology Centre.

The sanctions list also includes 22 companies or organisations involved in nuclear or ballistic missile activities and three entities linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.

If the resolution is approved, the number of entities under sanctions would more than double from 35 at present to 75.

In New York, Mexico’s UN ambassador Claude Heller, the current council president, said the security council vote would take place at 10am US time today.

After yesterday’s security council meeting, US ambassador Susan Rice predicted the resolution would be adopted by “a strong majority”.

“It is a strong, broad-based resolution that will impose meaningful and significant new sanctions on Iran,” she said.

“Our aim remains to persuade Iran to halt its nuclear programme and negotiate constructively and in earnest with the international community.”

Iran insists its nuclear programme is purely peaceful, aimed at producing nuclear energy and medical isotopes, but the US and its Western allies believe Tehran’s real goal is to build atomic weapons.