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      • U.N. Okays Sanctions in Sudan

U.N. Okays Sanctions in Sudan

UNITED NATIONS - As the U.N. Security Council slapped sanctions on four men in Sudan yesterday and prepared to begin negotiations next week to halt Iran's nuclear program, the leaders of the two renegade countries met in Tehran, promising to increase cooperation, including a possible transfer of nuclear technology.

 

The council's economic sanctions against a Khartoum air force officer, a Janjaweed sheik, and two rebel leaders marked the first punitive measures taken against anyone involved in the ongoing atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region that have left hundreds of thousands dead and millions homeless, and which America considers genocide.

 

China and Russia expressed reservations about the measures, but both countries refrained from vetoing the American-proposed resolution. Both, along with Qatar, abstained from the vote, while the rest of the 15 council members supported the action.

 

China's U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, said his country continues to oppose sanctions as a diplomatic tool. The five permanent members of the Security Council, however, "should use the veto power very carefully and constructively," he told The New York Sun.

 

"We take the Russian and Chinese abstention to be acquiescence in the opposition to the sanctions," the American ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said.

 

One Western diplomat, who asked not to be identified, predicted that when the council takes up the issue of Iran next week, it will face the same balance of power that was shown in yesterday's vote. "Twelve for and three abstentions: This might well be the result of the Iran vote," the diplomat said.

 

In Tehran, the supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, hosted President al-Bashir of Sudan yesterday. "Iran's nuclear capability is one example of various scientific capabilities in the country," Ayatollah Khamenei told his guest, according to the Associated Press. "The Islamic Republic of Iran is prepared to transfer the experience, knowledge and technology of its scientists."

 

Iran is recognized by Washington as a backer of terrorists and Khartoum has in the past hosted Osama bin Laden, who over the weekend urged his supporters to go to Darfur and fight foreign "infidels." Ayatollah Khamenei's statement yesterday raised the possibility of a nuclear alliance between the two oil-rich countries that have been at the top of the Security Council agenda for months.

 

It "shows just how irresponsible Iran is and why it represents, in our view, a grave threat of proliferation," Mr. Bolton said. "It is precisely the reason why the government of Iran constitutes a threat to international peace and security and should be here for action by the Security Council."

 

He said America is prepared to act immediately after the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, submits his report on Friday. Mr. ElBaradei is expected to address the council's request for a report on Tehran's compliance with demands that include the ending of all uranium enrichment activity on Iranian soil.

 

"The resolution that we are contemplating for adoption after the IAEA report would not be a sanctions resolution," Mr. Bolton said. "We're going to do this one step at a time." America will first establish the previous resolutions on Iran as binding under the U.N. charter's Chapter 7, he said.

 

Setting the stage for the next council confrontation, however, China's Mr. Wang said regarding Iran, "Any resolution based on Chapter 7 will not serve the purpose."

 

Along with Russia, China has shied away from punitive measures against Iran. But the two countries reluctantly refrained last month from blocking a resolution that requested the ElBaradei report. That resolution established the council's involvement with Iran's nuclear program, and charted a course that might eventually lead to sanctions.

 

Mr. Wang said that Mr. ElBaradei's report on Friday must be submitted to the IAEA board of governors, which is scheduled to meet again in the week beginning June 12. Next week, foreign ministers of the three European countries leading diplomacy on Iran - Britain, France, and Germany - will meet in Paris with their counterparts from Russia, America, and China. Only then will the council begin negotiations, Mr. Wang said.

 

A diplomat following the IAEA proceedings told the Sun yesterday that the cancellation of a Tehran visit by the agency's inspectors earlier this week, as well as Iran's refusal to allow inspectors to investigate a secret nuclear program that was disclosed by President Ahmadinejad, will most likely lead to a negative report by Mr. ElBaradei.

 

But the diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivities involved in the Vienna negotiations, also said that, based on past experience, Iran could well change its behavior at the last minute, in order to influence Mr. ElBaradei's reporting tone, and to dangle diplomatic hopes on the eve of negotiations at the council.

 

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