UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The five permanent members of the U.S. Security Council plus Germany on Tuesday reviewed a draft of new economic sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program.
Diplomats who have seen the draft told The Washington Post it doesn't contain some of the elements the Bush administration wants or has already unilaterally imposed on Tehran.
Delegates from Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States are reviewing a third round of sanctions that would target Iran's Quds Force, which is the foreign operations branch of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, diplomats told the Post. U.S. and European intelligence have alleged the group is providing arms, aid and training for groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Iraq's Shiite militias, the report said.
The draft calls for freezing any overseas Quds assets and would make any business dealings with the group illegal.
China and Russia, which both sell weapons to Iran, have been the most vocal in softening earlier sanctions.
While the United States had expressed hopes of getting a Security Council vote on new sanctions this month, a senior U.S. official told the newspaper it could well be pushed back to January.
