Excerpts from previous status reports, by subject
Removed on October 31, 2006
Disagreement over sanctions
U.N. Security Council resolution 1696, which passed on July 31, 2006, warned
that sanctions would be possible if Iran failed to suspend verifiably “all
enrichment-related and reprocessing activities.” It threatened “complete
or partial interruption of economic relations,” as well as “the
severance of diplomatic relations” if Iran failed to meet the deadline.
Though they supported the resolution, Russia and China then continued to call sanctions the wrong answer. Just days before the August 31, 2006 U.N. deadline expired, Russian Defense Minister Sergei B. Ivanov said that it was not “so urgent” for the Security Council to consider sanctions against Iran. Instead, Ivanov said that Russia would rather “advocate a political and diplomatic solution to the problem.”
The United States, however, has long seen sanctions as the necessary next
step, following Iran’s refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. In a speech
on August 31, U.S. President George W. Bush argued that “there must be
consequences for Iran’s defiance.” The same day, Undersecretary
of State R. Nicholas Burns said that the United States would “move this
toward a sanctions resolution at the United Nations,” and that the United
States would “expect others to join us.”
The U.S. sanctions Iran's suppliers
On December 23, 2005, the U.S. State Department punished nine entities under
the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000 for transferring equipment and technology
to Iran that could be used in mass destruction weapon programs. The sanctions
were reportedly imposed for transfers of missile and chemical weapon-useable
material. Six of the nine companies punished were Chinese, and two had been
previously sanctioned by the State Department for similar activities.