Panetta threatens 'most serious sanctions' against Iran

 

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta (file photo)

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/07/265346/us-threatens-iran-with-fresh-sanctions/

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has threatened Iran with new, stronger economic sanctions over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program.

Speaking at a media conference in Peru on Saturday, Panetta said Washington and its allies have reached an agreement “to impose probably the most serious sanctions, economic sanctions, that have been imposed on a nation.”

He said Iran should engage with the international community to try to resolve the West's standoff with the country and address their alleged concerns or face additional sanctions.

Panetta said the US and its allies are united in their efforts to stop Tehran’s uranium enrichment activities.

Washington’s sanction threats against Tehran are escalating despite the UN warning against the humanitarian ramifications of the embargoes.

On Friday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that the West’s embargoes against Iran have significantly targeted the livelihood of the ordinary Iranian population and led to shortage of necessary items, including medicine.

At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.

The sanctions came into force in early summer 2012.

The illegal US-engineered sanctions were imposed based on the unfounded accusation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran's civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production.

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UK we want Iran sanctions to hit people

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/07/265364/uk-we-want-iran-sanctions-to-hit-people/

The British Defense Secretary has acknowledged that the western sanctions on Iran are targeted at the livelihood of the ordinary people, which he said are necessary so that Tehran feels an “existential threat” from economic pressure and ends its nuclear activities.

“We can definitely make the pain much greater. Nobody wants to cause the Iranian people to suffer unnecessarily but this mad scheme to build a bomb has to be brought to an end,” Philip Hammond told the Guardian.

“The only thing that is likely to budge the government from its nuclear position is if they see or sense an existential threat. If the level of economic pressure starts to translate into potentially [government]-threatening disruption and dissent on the streets of Tehran, then they may change course,” he added.

Hammond did mention Iranians’ repeated explanation that “they’re enriching uranium for peaceful purposes,” but he blatantly claimed, “Nobody believes them.”

This comes as there are more grounds to believe Hammond is lying rather than Tehran as the latter is pursuing all its nuclear activities under the close inspection of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and that the agency has never offered any evidence on a deviation in Iran’s civilian nuclear activities.

Iran says its nuclear energy program is totally civilian and aimed at power generation adding it needs the 20-percent-enriched uranium it produces for production of fuel for a reactor that produces medicine for cancer and other patients.

His comments come ahead of the Conservative party annual conference and a meeting of EU ministers on October 15, when Britain, France and Germany are expected to push for more sanctions against Iran.

“There is talk of a general trade embargo and of shutting down the remaining access that Iran has to international banking channels,” Hammond said.

Iranian officials have long condemned the US and EU unilateral sanctions on the country as an “economic war” targeted at the people; a war commentators believe would further unify Iranians against their enemies.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has also condemned the western embargoes saying they have affected people’s livelihood and impeded patient’s access to much needed medicine.

“The sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran have had significant effects on the general population, including an escalation in inflation, a rise in commodities and energy costs, an increase in the rate of unemployment and a shortage of necessary items, including medicine," Ban said in a report to the UN General Assembly on Friday.

Iran has in the past described the Western propaganda storm against its nuclear energy program as a political game against a democracy Westerners cannot tolerate.

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