Rice urges major powers to speed up Iran sanction
Afp, Washington
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called her major power counterparts Tuesday in a bid to spur tough negotiations at the United Nations over a sanctions resolution against Iran, a senior US official said. Rice urged the foreign ministers from the other permanent UN Security Council members -- Britain, China, France and Russia -- to overcome the differences that have prevented agreement on the sanctions package, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said. "She put forward the proposal that we should try to work extremely hard to get that resolution passed as quickly as possible," Burns said. "We are working very hard at the UN Security Council to push for a resolution," he said. Iran faces the sanctions after rejecting an earlier UN resolution demanding it freeze a uranium enrichment programme many fear is a cover for developing nuclear weapons. Earlier another senior US official said North Korea's sudden decision Tuesday to give up its nuclear arsenal in the face of UN sanctions had provided a model for confronting Iran's uranium programme.
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