The draft of a new U.N. Security Council resolution on Iran reportedly does not include tough measures favored by the United States.
Frank-Walter Steinmeyer, the German foreign minister, announced the new draft after a two-hour meeting in Berlin with his counterparts from the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.
“We are united in the view that a nuclear-armed Iran would have dramatic consequences for the Middle East and further afield,” Steinmeyer said in announcing that the resolution would be circulated among other members of the Security Council.
All of the nations attending the meeting in Berlin except for Germany are permanent, veto-wielding members of the Security Council.
This would be the third sanctions resolution in just over a year. The United States had wanted to toughen it with expansive financial sanctions targeting Iranian banks. Instead, the Reuters news agency reported, at the behest of Russia and China, the resolution adds asset freezes and travel bans aimed at individuals and merely urges “vigilance” in monitoring the role of Iranian banks in funding suspected nuclear weapons programs.
