US hails anti-Iran UN bid, ignores swap

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=127074§ionid=351020104


The US president has hailed an anti-Iran UN Security Council (UNSC) draft resolution, ignoring Tehran's recent declaration on a nuclear fuel swap deal in Turkey.

"I am pleased that we have reached an agreement with our P5-plus-one partners on a strong resolution that we now have shared with our Security Council partners," President Barack Obama said in a joint press conference on Wednesday with his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderon.

Obama said that Iran should "uphold its international obligations or face increased sanctions and pressure including UN sanctions."

The remarks come days after Iran issued a joint declaration with current UNSC members Turkey and Brazil announcing Iran's readiness to engage in a nuclear fuel swap with the West under which Tehran would ship 1,200 kg of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for 120 kg of higher-enriched uranium it requires for producing medical isotopes in Tehran's Research Reactor (TRR).

The declaration came as part of a plan to settle an ongoing dispute over Iran's enrichment program, while supplying fuel to the TRR for its medical productions mostly dedicated to cancer patients.

A day after Iran made the announcement; US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed that the six powers had "reached agreement on a strong draft with the cooperation of Russia and China."

Clinton's claim came after Russian, Chinese and UN officials welcomed Tehran's declaration on the nuclear swap in Turkey as a positive development.

The new draft resolution, details of which were made public on Wednesday, calls on Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities or face further UN Security Council sanctions.

The draft, if approved, will ban countries from selling new categories of heavy weaponry to Iran and will impose restrictions on the country's banking sector.

The US says it is still "seriously concerned" about the Iranian nuclear program and would continue to push for more UNSC sanctions.

The US insistence on anti-Iran sanctions are widely reported to be influenced by powerful pro-Israeli groups in the US. Obama met Wednesday with a group of Jewish Congressmen to pledge his commitment to push through the sanctions resolution in the UNSC.

Iran says any punitive measure against its nuclear work would be legally baseless and unfair as the country's nuclear program is being fully monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency.