Obama Administration Preparing Iranian Sanctions Outside of UN Security Council, Just In Case
ABC News' Jake Tapper and Kirit Radia report:
With Iran seemingly rejecting the end-of-year deadline for making diplomatic progress with the West, and the Chinese government continuing to voice opposition to imposing additional sanctions in the United Nations Security Council against the rogue regime, the Obama administration has been preparing other possible additional ways of sanctioning Iran for its pursuit of nuclear weapons, ABC News has learned.
For months, officials of the Obama administration have been assiduously lobbying the leaders of other nations to join the U.S. on a bilateral or multilateral level in possibly imposing various new sanctions on, say, Iran's financial sector, or its petroleum sector, outside the auspices of the United Nations Security Council.
Officials cautioned that the official decision to pursue sanctions has not yet been made, that sanction efforts outside the UN would be several months away, and that emphasizing them revealed a far more pessimistic view of developments than they currently hold.
Iran may ultimately choose to work with the international community, officials said, and if it does not the Security Council might either decide to pursue new sanctions or toughen up the current sanctions on Iran -- which have imposed an arms embargo, banned the travel of Iranian officials working on the nuclear program, and prohibited certain financial transactions.
"There are sanctions that are available, that are on Iran right now," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters today. "We will continue to look at ways both bilaterally and multilaterally that we can... add to that mix and increase the cost to Iran of its inability or unwillingness to resolve the concerns the international community has about its nuclear program."
Additionally, European sources tell ABC News that European nations are beginning to explore sanctions on their own national levels and at the level of the European Union because they recognize that the UN measures will likely not end up being tough enough if and when they finally pass.
President Obama has given Iran until December 31, 2009, to show progress in meeting international requirements that it end its nuclear weapons program.
"By the end of the year we should have some sense whether or not these discussions are starting to yield significant benefits, whether we are starting to see serious movement on the part of Iranians," President Obama said in May.
On Monday, however, China’s envoy to the UN Security Council La Yifan -- despite numerous entreaties by the Obama administration to Chinese leaders -- indicated his country is not yet on board with new sanctions.
“We ask for more time to be given and efforts to be made to see if we can reach some sort of breakthrough,” La told Bloomberg News Monday. “The door to diplomatic efforts is not completely slammed yet. Efforts should focus on trying to find a solution to the current impasse.”
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sounded less than conciliatory when he said in a speech in the city of Shiraz today: "They say we have given Iran until the end of the Christian year. I say, who are they to provide us with an opportunity? We have provided them with an opportunity, instead."
Ahmadinejad said international leaders can give Iran "as many deadlines as they want, we don't care." He said Iran wants talks "under just conditions where there is mutual respect."
"We told you that we are not afraid of sanctions against us, and we are not intimidated," he said. "If Iran wanted to make a bomb, we would be brave enough to tell you."
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that "Mr. Ahmadinejad may not recognize, for whatever reason, the deadline that looms, but that is a very real deadline for the international community. The decision for them to live up to their responsibilities is their decision. We have offered them a different path. If they decide not to take it, then the will move accordingly."
And French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters in Paris that Russia is “on board” with more sanctions.
“I think there is no other solution,” Kouchner said.
The administration had hoped for new momentum for its proposed sanctions in September when, at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, President Obama, French President Sarkozy, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown delivered a sharp warning to Iran's government about what President Obama called "disturbing information" -- a secret uranium enrichment facility Western intelligence agencies have discovered near Qom, 97 miles southwest of Tehran.
Calling the news "a challenge made to the entire international community," President Sarkozy said that "if by December there is not an in-depth change by the Iranian leaders, sanctions will have to be taken."
Iran accepted, and then walked away, from a proposal from the "P5+1" -- the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the U.S., Russia, China, UK, and France -- plus Germany -- to send 1,200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium to Russia, followed by France, to be processed into material suitable for peaceful uses and not weapons-grade.
Then on November 29 Iranian leaders announced they would build 10 new nuclear plants.
Earlier this month, at a town hall meeting with U.S. troops in Kirkuk, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, "I think you are going to see some significant additional sanctions imposed by the international community."
And at the UN Security Council on December 10, British ambassador to the UN Mark Lyall-Grant said, "patience is running out. If there is no change of approach, then clearly the Security Council will need to look again at further sanctions against Iran in the new year."
French ambassador to the UN Gerard Araud added "there is no longer any reason to wait."
But the Chinese are pointing to remarks last week by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki who suggested Iran might be willing to send 400 kilograms outside of the country for processing, with the rest to be shipped over “several years.”
“We said we are in agreement on the principles of the proposal, but suddenly the Western media announced that 1,200 kilograms of uranium would be leaving Iran to delay the construction of a nuclear bomb,” Mottaki said. “Is this the answer to Iran’s confidence-building?”
Said Chinese ambassador La: “We note the recent remarks by Iranian authorities of a kind of continued willingness to have an exchange. With regard to the venue and also the modalities of such exchanges, those are the issues that a solution should be found through continued discussion.”
-- Jake Tapper and Kirit Radia