US wants vote on Iran sanctions resolution on Thursday

WASHINGTON: The United States is pushing for a UN Security Council vote on Thursday imposing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, though differences with key council members remain over details of the measure, the State Department said on Wednesday.   

"We dont think there is anything standing in the way of having a vote tomorrow," department spokesman Sean McCormack said. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke by telephone on Wednesday with British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett to discuss "ways to close the remaining gaps" over the text of the resolution, he said.   

"I would caution that we're not there yet, we don't have a final agreement on a resolution," he said.   

Iran faces mandatory UN sanctions after refusing to comply with an August 31 Security Council resolution demanding it suspend a programme of uranium enrichment and reprocessing which some fear could be a cover for development of nuclear weapons.   

Envoys of the Security Council's five veto-wielding members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- were meeting at UN headquarters in New York trying to put the finishing touches to a new draft resolution drawn up by three European powers.   

They were pouring over a slightly amended version of the draft that was circulated Tuesday among the Security Council's 15 members.   

A Western diplomat close to the talks said a final draft might emerge later on Wednesday pending the outcome of the six-way bargaining round.   

Those talks coincided with charges by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier Wednesday that key Western members of the council were trying to "introduce an element of punishment" in a text that was only intended to coax Iran back to the negotiating table.   

The Security Council "should help unblock the negotiations with Iran and not punish Iran," Lavrov said.   

Moscow objects to the inclusion in the draft's annex of a travel ban on 12 officials directly linked to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programsme and of an assets freeze on 11 entities linked to those programmes.   

But France warned against any attempt to "alter the scope" of proposed UN sanctions.   

The draft submitted by Britain, France and Germany would impose a mandatory ban on trade with Iran in goods related to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and place financial restrictions on persons and entities involved in the sectors. It demands that Iran "without further delay suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development and work on all heavy water related projects."   

Iran insists its nuclear programme is designed solely for the civilian production of energy, as allowed under UN non-proliferation agreements.