UN to vote on new Iran sanctions

UN to vote on new Iran sanctions The UN Security Council is set to slap new sanctions on Iran Wednesday for refusing to rein in its suspect nuclear program, nail despite warnings from Tehran it will break off talks on the standoff.

After months of behind-the-scenes haggling, Mexican Ambassador Claude Heller, who chairs the 15-member council this month, said a draft resolution on fresh sanctions would go to a vote on Wednesday at 10:00 am (1400 GMT).

"I think it is fair (to say) that these are the most significant sanctions that Iran has ever faced," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters during a visit to Ecuador.

The resolution's six co-sponsors -- the five council permanent members Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States along with Germany -- say they have more than the nine votes needed to adopt the text.

It would be the fourth set of UN sanctions imposed on Iran in recent years, nail as the international community has struggled -- and failed -- to curb the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions.

Iran insists its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful civilian purposes, while the Western nations have led accusations that it is seeking to develop an atomic weapon.

According to the US-drafted text, the resolution would broaden three earlier sets of sanctions slapped on Iran, the last of which adopted on March 3, 2008.

The new resolution:

Would expand an arms embargo and measures against Iran's banking sector and ban it from sensitive overseas activities like uranium mining;

Authorize states to conduct high-sea inspections of vessels believed to be ferrying banned items from or to Iran;

Add 40 entities to a list of people and groups subject to travel restrictions and financial sanctions, as well as Javad Rahiqi, head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran's Isfahan nuclear technology center.

According to the draft text, 22 of the entities are linked to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, nail 15 are "owned, controlled, or acting on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps" and three are controlled by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.