UNITED NATIONS - The five permanent members of
the U.N. Security Council reached a deal Friday on a resolution that would give
Iran until the end of August to suspend uranium enrichment or face the threat of
economic and diplomatic sanctions.
The draft was formally circulated to the full
15-member council late in the day and will likely be adopted next week.
Because of Russian and Chinese demands, the
text is weaker than earlier drafts, which would have made the threat of
sanctions immediate. The draft now essentially requires the council to hold
further discussions before it considers sanctions.
"There (are) no sanctions introduced on Iran in
the draft resolution which we are finalizing," Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly
Churkin said.
Churkin stressed that work on the resolution
was not finished, raising the possibility the introduction of the draft could be
postponed.
The resolution, drafted by Britain, France and
Germany with U.S. backing, is a followup to a July 12 agreement ¡ª by the foreign
ministers of those four countries, plus Russia and China ¡ª to refer Tehran to
the Security Council for not responding to incentives to suspend
enrichment.
The ministers asked that council members adopt
a resolution making Iran's suspension of enrichment activities mandatory. Tehran
said last week it would reply Aug. 22 to the Western incentive package, but the
council decided to go ahead with a resolution and not wait for Iran's
response.
Iran on Friday called again for international
negotiations on its nuclear ambitions and said it was considering the
incentives. Western nations have dismissed the idea of such talks without a halt
to Iran's uranium enrichment.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki,
speaking to reporters in Malaysia, said Tehran considers the package as a
"positive step" toward a diplomatic solution.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said
Friday Moscow wants a swift, positive response from Iran on the package, Russian
news agencies said.
"We are counting on the Iranian leadership to
finish studying (the incentives) and give a positive answer as soon as
possible," Interfax, ITAR-Tass and RIA-Novosti quoted Lavrov as saying on a
plane en route to Dubai from Malaysia where he attended an Asian security
forum.
The U.S. and some of its allies accuse Iran of
seeking to produce highly enriched uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons.
Tehran maintains its nuclear program is purely peaceful and aimed at generating
electricity.