JURIST - Paper Chase: UN Security Council imposes nuclear sanctions on Iran

[JURIST] The UN Security Council [official website] voted 15-0 Saturday to impose its first sanctions on Iran [JURIST news archive] for continuing to enrich uranium past an August 31 deadline imposed by Security Council Resolution 1696 [PDF text, JURIST report]. In unanimously adopting Resolution 1737 [text and statements] the Council cited reports submitted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) [official website; press release] on the August 31 deadline as well as a November 14 update [IAEA reports, PDF] which showed that Iran had not "established full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities as set out in resolution 1696" or otherwise complied with IAEA instructions.

The resolution calls for the end of all uranium enrichment and heavy-water research, imposes a ban on the import or export of related dangerous materials, and moves to freeze the international assets of individuals and organizations connected to the nuclear programs. The sanctions fall under Chapter VII [text] Article 41 of the UN Charter, making enforcement mandatory but restricted to non-military measures. The IAEA will submit a report on Iran's compliance with the resolution in 60 days, at which point further sanctions will be considered. Bloomberg has more.

Iran immediately denounced [IRNA report] the move and declared that its nuclear program would not be affected by the decision. Iran's Ambassador to the UN, Javad Zarif, addressed the UN council regarding what he saw as an unfair bias against the Iranian program:

The same governments which have pushed this council to take groundless punitive measures against Iran's peaceful nuclear program have systematically prevented it from taking any action to nudge the Israeli regime towards submitting itself to the rules governing the nuclear nonproliferation regime.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini declared in his own televised response that the decision was illegal and emphasized that it "cannot affect or limit Iran's peaceful nuclear activities but will discredit the decisions of the Security Council, whose power is deteriorating." Reuters has more.

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