US vice president Biden says Iran sanctions likely by early May

Friday, April 23, 2010

The vice president of the United States, Joe Biden, said yesterday that he expects the United Nations to implement new sanctions against Iran by early next month.

	Everyone from the Israeli prime minister straight through to the British prime minister to the president of Russia, everyone agrees the next step we should take is the UN sanction route
—Joe Biden, US Vice President

Biden said that "I believe you will see a sanction regime coming out by the end of this month, beginning of next month", adding that said that China, which had previously been opposed to sanctions against Iran, would take part in the latest round. UN diplomats are presently engaged in the process of developing the new sanctions, which will be the fourth resolution against Iran's nuclear program.

According to Biden, the latest sanctions would mark the first time the world was unified in its opposition to Iran's nuclear program. He noted that "[t]veryone from the Israeli prime minister straight through to the British prime minister to the president of Russia, everyone agrees the next step we should take is the UN sanction route." The Obama administration, leading the effort for further sanctions against Iran, is confident China will be in support of such actions, despite being a close trading partner with Iran.

Biden also said that Israel has pledged not to take military action against Iran in the near future, and would instead wait to see what effect sanctions have on Iran. He commented: "They're [Israel] not going to do that." Iran and Israel have long been at odds, and Israel has not ruled out launching a preemptive strike against Iran before it develops nuclear weapons. Numerous Western countries have claimed that developing nuclear weapons is the ultimate goal of Iran's nuclear program, although Tehran claims that the program is for civilian purposes only.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Sources

"Biden Expects New UN Sanctions Against Iran" — Voice of America, April 22, 2010
"Biden: Iran sanctions soon, no Israeli strike likely" — The Washington Post, April 22, 2010

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.