US prepared to move with sanctions on Iran

Oct 6, 2009, 18:50 GMT

Washington - The United States is preparing to push forward with international sanctions if negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme fail, US officials said Tuesday.

Deputy Secretary of States James Steinberg told a Senate committee that the United States will be ready to quickly seek UN Security Council sanctions if the ongoing talks with Iran fail to resolve international concerns about its nuclear activities.

'We would be prepared to move ahead swiftly and effectively with additional measures, with the confidence that our engagement to date will make such measures unified and effective,' Steinberg told the Senate finance committee.

Representatives from the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany met with their Iranian counterpart in Geneva on Thursday in an effort to revive the diplomatic process. Iran agreed to allow UN inspectors into a recently disclosed nuclear facility for enriching uranium.

Iran's failure to disclose the site near Qom until only recently to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) heightened concerns the Islamic state was pursuing the capability to build nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is purely for peaceful purposes.

Iran also agreed in principle in the Geneva talks to ship out uranium it has already enriching to other countries for fuelling in nuclear reactors. US officials say Iran must follow through on these agreements or face consequences from the international community.

'The plan we are developing is necessarily comprehensive,' said Stuart Levey, a Treasury Department undersecretary. 'As many of you noted in your statements, no single sanction alone is a silver bullet. We will need to impose measures simultaneously in many different forms, in order to be effective.'