Iran Warns Against U.N. Sanctions, Seeks to Divert Attention to Israel
James Phillips /
As the U.N. Security Council finally prepares to vote on the long-awaited Iran sanctions resolution, Tehran has escalated its efforts to undermine sanctions efforts. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned today that if a fourth round of sanctions is imposed, Iran will drop its nuclear fuel swap deal with Brazil and Turkey and rule out future talks on the nuclear issue. Ahmadinejad whined: “I have said that the US government and its allies are mistaken if they think they can brandish the stick of resolution and then sit down to talk with us, such a thing will not happen.”
Western diplomats hope that the Iran sanctions resolution finally will be approved this week, after more than five months of negotiations. Brazil, Lebanon and Turkey are expected to oppose sanctions but probably will not be able to garner enough support to block them. Brazil and Turkey teamed up last month to help Iran undermine the push for sanctions by reaching a cosmetic deal with Tehran that involved swapping some of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile for fuel rods for the Tehran research reactor, but failed to address the core issues related to Iran’s nuclear defiance.