At UN,
Three of Four Drop Opposition to Iran Sanctions Resolution, Indonesia
Abstains
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, March 3, 1:56 p.m. --
Monday's Security Council meeting about imposing sanctions on Iran
stretched into and past the diplomats' lunch time, as pressure was
brought to bear on prospective opponents or abstainers to the
resolution. The Deputy Permanent Representative of Indonesia, on his way
into the Council in the morning, said that his country was not at that
time in support of the resolution. South Africa's Ambassador Dumisani
Kumalo has for weeks been questioning the timing and substance of the
resolution.
By
the time the open meeting started, after a lengthy speech by Iran's
Ambassador Khazaee, Amb. Kumalo said he would be supporting the
resolution, out of respect for previous resolutions. Observers noted
French President Sarkozy's talks with his South African counterpart
Mbeki. Libya said that it too would associate itself with the Council's
consensus. Viet Nam fell in line. At 1:50 p.m., the drum roll was for
Indonesia, to which Sarkozy also reportedly reached out.
Indonesia's Ambassador at UN
At 1:56
p.m., Indonesia said, before the vote, that it would abstain. And it
did. 14 for, none against, and one abstention. Developing.
At 2:30 p.m.,
while speeches continued inside the Council, Inner City Press asked
Syria's Ambassador to explain Libya's vote in favor of the resolution.
While he emphasized Libya's ambivalent statement about the resolution,
the "why" of the affirmative votes remains.
At 3:20 p.m.,
after U.S. Ambassador Khalilzad pointedly took his first question in
Farsi, from the BCC, and after the Ambassadors of the UK, France and
Germany sung from the same hymnal, Inner City Press asked Russia's
Vitaly Churkin, president of the Council for March, how long-term
Russia's commitment to provide nuclear fuel to Iran is. Amb. Churkin
called it a commercial deal, that may or may not have already been
entirely fulfilled.
Moving on to
other matters, Inner City Press asked Amb. Churkin if anyone has asked
the Council to take up the Colombia - Ecuador matter. No, he said. As to
why, watch this site.
The
resolution directs particular vigilance at Bank Melli and Bank Saderat,
and calls for inspections of Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran
Shipping Line.
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