A day before the U.N. Security Council will vote on the measure, Hillary Clinton said the proposed new sanctions the organization will impose on Iran are the “most significant” the country “has ever faced.” The secretary of State said there is widespread support for a fourth resolution that would penalize Iran for its refusal to demonstrate that its nuclear program is peaceful, as Clinton noted “the amount of unity that has been engendered by the international community is very significant.”
According to the AP, the U.N. resolution would include sanctions tougher than those previously levied, though there would not be any explicit economic punishments nor an oil embargo. The sanctions will call for countries to block financial transactions with the country and ban the licensing of Iran’s banks if there is reason to believe that these activities are contributing to the nuclear program.
“The strategy here is a combination of diplomacy and pressure to persuade the Iranians that they are headed in the wrong direction in terms of their own security, that they will undermine their security by pursuit of nuclear weapons, not enhance it,” U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.
Gates said the measure is likely to pass, despite rumblings that Brazil and Turkey aren’t sold on the proposal yet.
