Italy arrests Iran weapons smugglers as nuclear pressure builds

“Iran’s persistent failure to meet its international obligations require a clear response,” the EU said, in a statement read on the third day of the IAEA’s 35-member board of governors meeting in Vienna.

The EU “would support action by the UNSC if Iran continues not to cooperate with the international community over its nuclear program.”

Consensus has been growing in Washington for more sanctions, as US officials grapple with a string of Iranian moves to boost uranium enrichment levels from 3.5 percent to nearly 20 percent – to eventually provide fuel for a research reactor – and a 10-fold increase in planned enrichment facilities.

UNSC resolutions already require Iran to stop all enrichment work until outstanding issues on the possible military nature of Iran’s nuclear program are resolved.

“The Iranians are proving to the world that they have no desire to live up to their own responsibilities. That’s alarming,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Tuesday.

The arrests in Italy are significant because Rome is Iran’s second-largest trading partner in Europe behind Germany. But Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has recently stepped up his calls for tougher measures against Iran.

Beyond the EU, Iran’s diplomatic turbulence extended in recent days to Russia, which has had close ties to Tehran for years. Along with China, it routinely opposes sanctions against Iran on the Security Council. Russia has nearly completed Iran’s first nuclear power plant, a $1 billion project at Bushehr.

But Russia has been increasingly raising concerns about Iran’s nuclear program, and last week, an official in Moscow stated for the first time that those concerns were behind a delay in delivery of Russia’s sophisticated S-300 air defense system to Iran.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, speaking in Paris on Monday after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy – who has become Iran’s toughest critic in Europe – said Moscow would back new sanctions if they didn’t lead to a humanitarian crisis in Iran.

“We are optimists and we are not losing the feeling that we may achieve success,” Medvedev said. “Nonetheless, if it doesn’t work out … Russia is ready to consider with our other partners the question of introducing sanctions.”

Reports suggest that a draft of a fourth round of sanctions may be circulated as early as this week, and are likely to be a token tightening of measures already in place against Iran.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Previous

1 | 2