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WASHINGTON: A top US official on Wednesday warned Iran to “think carefully” about its options, as the Islamic republic's nuclear showdown raced to a new crisis point in the UN Security Council.
Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said a new bid to toughen sanctions on Iran, which has refused to halt enriching uranium, would act as a “vise” that would start to isolate Tehran from the rest of the world.
“Iran needs to think carefully about its options on the nuclear issue,” Burns said at a conference on Iran grouping policymakers and experts.
“In my judgment they have made a series of miscalculations,” he said.
“Who are Iran's friends on this nuclear issue? I can find four: Cuba, Venezuela, Syria and Belarus,” said Burns, naming four countries that have testy relations with Washington.
“It's our advice to the Iranians to think twice about their options.”
Burns said he hoped, over time, “as the vise tightens with a second or perhaps third Security Council resolution,” Iran would realize it has no chance to bow to demands to halt its nuclear program.
But he made clear Washington was not threatening a military confrontation with Iran over the issue, and would allow time for a diplomacy to play out.
Burns spoke in Washington, as the Security Council opened a debate on a new Iran sanctions resolution ahead of a vote expected to be attended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The council's 15 members met behind closed doors to debate a draft resolution agreed by six major powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — as well as amendments submitted by South Africa, Qatar and Indonesia.
The draft broadens sanctions imposed on Iran by the Council in December after Tehran spurned repeated UN demands to halt uranium enrichment.
It bans Tehran from exporting arms, calls for voluntary trade sanctions and expands a list of officials and companies targeted for financial and travel restrictions.
The West fears Iran aims to produce nuclear weapons with the enriched uranium, but Tehran insists the fuel is for peaceful energy purposes only.
