US Turns Heat Up On Iran

Two UN Security Council resolutions, in December and March, sought to target Iranian trade in material and equipment connected with its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and also named three aviation companies run by the Revolutionary Guards as well as seven of its officers. This new American order would widen that. It would add to the pressure on US allies and business partners to restrict their dealings with Iran. The US will also continue to try to get a further Security Council resolution tightening and extending sanctions on Iran. Discussions are expected to be taken up in New York in September but China, for one, has been reluctant to go too far. The US Treasury Under-Secretary Stuart Levey, in charge of an economic counter-terrorism unit, has been touring Europe this summer asking governments and business, especially banks, to cut Iran off. Nicholas Burns, Under-Secretary at the Department of State told a Senate committee earlier this year: "We have used our influence to convince leading European banks to stop all lending to Iran. We have convinced European governments and Japan to begin reducing export credits." However, this pressure has clearly not been enough. Iran is still defying the Security Council demand for it to suspend uranium enrichment to allow talks about its future nuclear plans to be discussed. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6947616.stm Published: 2007/08/15 10:41:09 GMT

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