The Obama Administration seeks a U.N. Security Council vote for sanctions on Iran by June 21, a top State Department official has said.
“The (US) President has indicated he wants to see this accomplished by the end of spring. We see that date on the horizon and we expect to meet that objective,” State Department spokesman, P. J. Crowley, told reporters at his daily news briefing yesterday.
“Is that June 20 or 21?” he asked before a reporter replied June 21.
“So sometime between now and then,” he said in response to a question.
However, Mr. Crowley refrained from giving a precise date saying that the work is still in progress.
“There’s still technical work being done on the annexes to the resolution. So it’s hard for me to say precisely where this process is,” he said.
Noting that this is one of the most important issues facing the international community, Mr. Crowley said the IAEA’s latest report underscores that Iran continues to refuse to comply fully with the international obligations.
“We’re going to put forward this resolution in the coming days, and we expect all responsible members of the international community especially those entrusted to serve on the U.N. Security Council and deal with these matters, to support the resolution,” he said.
Mr. Crowley said U.S. is moving based on what it knows, which is, that Iran continues to enrich and, as the IAEA report indicates, it is not in compliance with its international obligations.
“The U.S. has reached the judgement shared, we believe, by the P-5 plus one that Iran is only going to change course if we apply the kind of pressure that is represented in this U.N. Security Council draft resolution,” he said.
