US, partners working on ‘consequences’ for Iran

SEOUL, MANILA:  President Barack Obama on Thursday said the United States and its partners were now discussing "consequences" in the form of toughened sanctions on Iran after its apparent rejection of a nuclear deal.

Obama said he left the door open for Iran to accept international efforts to defuse the nuclear crisis, but bemoaned that the leadership had been "unable to get to yes," so Washington and partners were now discussing "consequences."

Western powers are gearing up for talks on a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program but will not target Iran's energy sector to ensure Russia's and China's support, a European diplomat said Wednesday.

The decision to begin exploring the possibilities for new punitive measures against Tehran reflects the growing impatience in the United States, Britain, France and Germany, the four Western powers that have joined forces with Russia and China to persuade Iran to freeze parts of its nuclear program.

"We have waited long enough for Iran," a European diplomat said on condition of anonymity. "We and our friends in the (six powers) agree it is time to consider next steps at the U.N."

But the scaling back of the West's expectations for new U.N. steps against Iran for defying Security Council demands to stop enriching uranium shows that the Europeans and Americans have accepted that Moscow and Beijing, with their close trade ties to Tehran, will not let Iran's economy be crippled.

Literature of the 60s

Meanwhile, Iran dismissed on Thursday the possibility of sanctions over Tehran's rejection of a deal to send enriched uranium abroad for further processing.

"Sanction was the literature of the 60s and 70s," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said at a news conference during a visit to the Philippines.

"I think they are wise enough not to repeat failed experiences," he said, speaking through an interpreter. "Of course it's totally up to them."

Iran's ISNA news agency quoted Mottaki on Wednesday as rejecting the draft deal brokered by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The IAEA had said Iran should send some 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France, where it would be turned into fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor.

The decision is expected to anger the United States and its allies, which had called on Iran to accept a deal which aimed to delay Tehran's potential ability to make bombs by at least a year by divesting Iran of most of its enriched uranium.

Mottaki reiterated that Tehran was willing to discuss the deal but only if the swap of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel took place within Iran.