UNITED NATIONS, April 8 -- U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, emerging from a meeting Wednesday afternoon on Iran nuclear sanctions, smiled and said the process would continue "here and in capitals" for the "next days and weeks."
The Deputy Representative of Germany, which joins the UN Security Council's Permanent Five members in negotiating the Iran resolutions then presented to the Council's non-Permanent or Transient Ten, said that there is a text. This sent reporters into a frenzy: who would get it first?
The day previous, a Permanent Five ambassador told Inner City Press that "of course," if Iran showed flexibility on the Tehran Research Reactor and proposal to out-ship uranium for enrichment in Russia and then France, the sanctions process would stop in its tracks.
That is a "confident building measure," according to the ambassador, the volume no longer providing the assurance it would have. Iran now has more uranium: 800 kilos more, the ambassador said.
Who would be sanctioned, by a resolution that could pass? Elements of the Revolutionary Guard, it seems clear. The energy sector, probably not. Insurance firms? It depends.
Some have speculated that the P5 (or at least P3) and Germany will try to get a resolution passed in April, to avoid running into May when Lebanon with its mixed government will take over Presidency of the Security Council. Others have wondered about the impact, if any, of the upcoming UK elections. There is a lot in play.
The UN press corps set up shop outside the skyscraper housing the French and UK Missions. On his way in, China's Ambassador Li Baodong said he would speak when it was over. By then it was a mob scene, the press corps hungry for any scrap of news.
One TV reporter thrust his yellow microphone at Ambassador Rice, drawing a pause and then a smile. The German spoke just before getting into his waiting car. Li Baodong did not disappoint, calling the process two track with a "focus on diplomacy." One wondered: with Iran?
