The outlook for imposing tough new U.N. sanctions on Iran is increasingly grim, as Russia and China work to slow down a U.S. and European drive for swift action, Israel's U.N. envoy said on Tuesday.
The United States, Britain, France and Germany have agreed on a watered-down proposal for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program and given it to Russia and China for comments. Russia's initial reaction has been negative and China has not reacted, Western diplomats say.
"It now seems that Russia and China are still dragging their legs and they are still looking to the diplomatic track," Israel's U.N. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev told reporters at U.N. headquarters.
"We are more than suspicious because these diplomatic overtures took over the last years and the Iranians are mocking them," she said.
Western diplomats say they had hoped to get a sanctions resolution through the Security Council next month but that timeframe is now looking increasingly unrealistic.
Iran denies Western allegations that its nuclear program is a covert quest to develop the capability to produce atomic weapons and has resisted international calls to curtail it. Tehran says the program is for electricity, not bombs.
Shalev said that Russia had initially appeared supportive of efforts to impose a new punitive measures against the Islamic Republic for defying five U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding that it halt nuclear enrichment.
But Moscow does not appear very supportive, she said.
"The chances now seem grim regarding sanctions that will be crippling," she said.
Shalev defined "crippling" sanctions as steps that would not hurt the Iranian people but Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and key firms and individuals. Three earlier sanctions resolutions imposed travel bans and asset freezes on a small group of Iranians and Iranian companies and one bank.
She reiterated that if the 15-nation Security Council fails to agree on sanctions, or passes weak measures that are more symbolic than painful, Israel hopes the United States, European Union and others will impose their own sanctions on Iran.
Shalev added that non-permanent council members Turkey, Brazil, Bosnia-Herzegovina and others remained "mysterious," adding that Israel was lobbying all of them to support new sanctions. Diplomats say Turkey, Brazil and Lebanon do not support new steps against Iran and might abstain or vote no.
Originally the United States, Britain, France and Germany had hoped to persuade Russia and China to agree to a U.N. blacklisting of Iran's central bank. But the latest draft, written to make it more palatable to Moscow and Beijing, only urges states to be "vigilant" regarding Iran's central bank.
The proposal also includes no sanctions against Iran's oil and gas sectors, as France had pushed for.
It does, however, call for restrictions on new Iranian banks abroad, a full arms embargo, a crackdown on insurance and reinsurance for cargo coming in and out of Iran, and a black listing of at least one shipping firm. It would also include a new focus on the IRGC and firms controlled by it.
Shalev made clear that the military option remained "on the table" as a means of dealing with Iran's nuclear program. However, she added that a military solution, like allowing Iran to press ahead with its nuclear program, was a "bad option."
Still, she said that the military option was a focus of discussion between the United States and Israel, though she declined to say whether the administration of President Barack Obama was arguing for or against it.
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