Update:
West Circulates New Resolution On Iran's Nuclear ProgramWestern nations circulated a new UN Security Council resolution yesterday that could trigger sanctions against Iran unless it abandons uranium enrichment, despite objections from Russia and China.
The West hopes the Security Council will adopt the resolution before foreign ministers convene in New York next Monday, the ambassadors of France and the United States said before a Security Council meeting to discuss the issue.
The resolution demands that Iran "suspend all enrichment related and reprocessing activities," according to the text presented to the council. It also calls on Iran to stop construction of a heavy-water reactor and asks the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to report on Iran's compliance.
No time frame has been set for that report, but diplomats said the West wants it no later than early June.
The United States, Britain and France are seeking to pass a Security Council resolution that would make the council's earlier demand that Iran halt uranium enrichment mandatory. They want the resolution adopted under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which can be enforced by sanctions, or if necessary, military action.
But Russia and China, while concerned about Iran's nuclear program, say there is no evidence yet that Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons and oppose putting the resolution under Chapter 7.
Meanwhile, the Iranian military yesterday rejected a statement by a top Revolutionary Guards commander that Israel would be Iran's first retaliatory target in response to any U.S. attack, an Iranian news agency reported.
Brigadier General Alireza Afshar, an armed forces spokesman and deputy to Iran's chief of military staff, said that Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghani's statement "is his personal view and has no validity as far as Iranian military officials are concerned," according to the Entekhab News Agency.
Dehghani was quoted by the Iranian Student News Agency on Tuesday as saying: "We have announced that wherever [in Iran] America makes any mischief, the first place we target will be Israel."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/712152.html