Straw ... resolution in the offing if Iran does not comply. - REUTERS
BERLIN (Reuters):
BRITISH FOREIGN Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday sanctions could follow if Iran remained defiant and refused to halt its uranium enrichment programme as demanded by the United Nations Security Council.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the five permanent council members and Germany, Straw said Wednesday's non-legally binding presidential statement had given Iran 30 days to freeze its uranium enrichment programme.
Asked if the council might pass a legally binding resolution if Iran did not comply, Straw said this was a possibility.
"It can certainly include a resolution before the Security Council and the possibility of measures after that. We've not disguised that," he said.
Asked if such possible measures could include sanctions, Straw said: "It could do, is the answer."
STANDING FIRM
Meanwhile, Iran rejected yesterday the Security Council demand that it halt uranium enrichment.
"We will not, definitely, suspend again the enrichment," Iran's ambassador to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, Aliasghar Soltaniyeh, told Reuters.
If the Islamic republic changed its stance and froze its enrichment programme, which could be used to make fuel for nuclear power plants or weapons, it would reap many benefits.
"If they bring themselves into compliance then all sorts of good things, not bad things, will follow," Straw said.
