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UN Security Council sanctions Iran again |
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The UN Security Council ratcheted up sanctions on Iran on March 3 for refusing to suspend nuclear enrichment and other sensitive activities, but Teheran dismissed the decision as illegal. There were 14 votes in favour, none against and one country, Indonesia, abstained. Previous sanctions resolutions were adopted unanimously in December 2006 and March 2007, but Council envoys said March 3’s message to Iran was a strong one. Iran denounced the current and previous resolutions as violations of international law and said they only harmed the 15-nation Security Council’s standing. The credibility of the Security Council is readily downgraded to a mere tool of the national foreign policy of just a few countries. Iran’s UN Ambassador, Mohammad Khazaee, dismissed as “baseless” new US intelligence suggesting Iran had conducted an intensive study into building atomic weapons, saying his country’s nuclear programme “has been, is and will remain absolutely peaceful”. The sanctions resolution calls for more travel and financial curbs on individuals and companies and makes some nations mandatory. It also expands a previous ban on trade in items with both civilian and initial uses to cover sales of all such technology to India . The new resolution adds the names of 13 individuals and 12 companies to the list of people and suspected of aiding Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes. One of the individuals is Brigadier Mohammad Reza Naqdi, who it says had to skirt UN sanctions.
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