The Bush administration said Tuesday that it does not need the support of Russia and China to impose sanctions against Iran, which threatened to attack Israel in response to any “evil” act by the U.S.
John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Iran could succeed even without the support of Russia and China, which hold veto authority as permanent members of the council.
“It’s not impossible that we would proceed without them,” Bolton told a House subcommittee. “A permanent member of the Security Council obviously has the option to veto such a resolution.
“But a permanent member also has the option to abstain,” he said. “And when a permanent member abstains, that is acquiescing in the Security Council taking action, assuming there is otherwise a majority of nine votes.”
Bolton’s testimony came as Iran’s foreign minister claimed to have received assurances from Russia and China that they would oppose sanctions aimed at punishing Tehran for its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“The thing these two countries have officially told us and expressed in diplomatic negotiations is their opposition to sanctions and military attack,” Manouchehr Mottaki told Kayhan, a newspaper controlled by the Iranian government.
“At the current juncture, I personally believe no sanctions or anything like that will be on the agenda of the Security Council,” he said.
The opposition to sanctions could soon spread from Russia and China to another permanent member of the Security Council, France, according to Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security.
“We hear France, as it relates to dealing with the nuclear issue in Iran, say to us they’re not going to support sanctions if it doesn’t pass the U.N. mustard, which means we’ve got to get the Russians and the Chinese to agree,” Shays told Bolton in Tuesday’s hearing.
“I wonder how it’s ever possible,” he said. “And then I begin to think, well, you’ll never see the U.N. ever take meaningful action on any issue.”
Such splits in the international community appeared to embolden Tehran, where a senior military leader threatened to attack Israel if the U.S. takes action against Iran.
“Wherever America does something evil, the first place that we target will be Israel,” Rear Adm. Mohammad-Ebrahim Dehqani told the Iranian Students News Agency.
