Security Council starts debate on Iran sanctions draft

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council on Wednesday began a debate on a new Iran sanctions resolution ahead of a vote to be attended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.   

The council's 15 members huddled behind closed doors to pore over a draft resolution agreed by six major powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- as well as amendments submitted by South Africa, Qatar and Indonesia.   

"We are going to hear the reactions. We've given six days to colleagues to look at the text," Britain's UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry told reporters on his way to the consultations. "I hope that if there are suggestions to improve the text that we get them this afternoon."   

"In the light of the discussions today we will decide how we are going to proceed," said Jones Parry, one of the co-sponsors of the draft which broadened sanctions imposed on Iran by the Council in December after Tehran spurned repeated UN demands to halt uranium enrichment.   

He said the text would be put to a vote "as soon as members of the council feel ready to have a vote."   

His Chinese counterpart Wang Guagnya said this would happen "more likely next week."   

The draft bans Tehran from exporting arms, calls for voluntary trade sanctions and expands a list of officials and companies targeted for financial and travel restrictions.   

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has indicated that he want to address the Security Council when it votes on the draft to defend his country's right to pursue uranium enrichment.   

US officials have granted him a visa to come to New York.   

Meanwhile Western sponsors of the draft signalled their readiness to accept some minor amendments to the draft offered by South Africa, Qatar and Indonesia.   

Qatar and Indonesia have both proposed including in the draft a paragraph recalling the goal of a "Middle East free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery."   

While that idea was called acceptable by a Western diplomat Tuesday, South Africa's amendments to the draft are more controversial.   

South Africa has proposed a 90-day suspension of the sanctions to allow "space for technical discussions at the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear monitoring agency) and political negotiations ... to achieve a peaceful and negotiated solution."   

South Africa also proposed deleting the weapons ban and many financial sanctions which, if accepted, Western diplomats said, would gut much of the draft.   

The West fears Iran aims to produce nuclear weapons with the enriched uranium, but Tehran insists the fuel is for peaceful energy purposes only.