New York, Jan 25 (DPA) The five UN Security Council permanent members met for preliminary discussions of a draft resolution to impose further sanctions on Iran in the protracted dispute over its nuclear programme, diplomats said.
Envoys from the US, Russia, Britain, France and China met at the UN headquarters Thursday just two days after their foreign ministers and the German foreign minister met in Berlin to devise new pressure on Tehran to abandon its nuclear activities.
The six nations agreed in Berlin on a set of “elements”, which the five permanent members with veto power in New York plan to put into a new resolution, diplomats said. The five permanent members will meet the 10 elected council members to explain the new development.
The council last year imposed unanimously an embargo on sales of weapons, aircraft, warships and missiles to Iran and prohibited Iran from exporting and transferring weapons and related material to other countries.
The sanctions had not stopped Iran’s programme to enrich uranium, which the US and other western nations said would allow Iran to manufacture nuclear weapons.