Iran's nuclear programme has split the UN Security Council. The permanent members differ on the policy that the international community should pursue on Tehran.
Western countries opt for tougher sanctions, and this past Monday the US State Secretary Hillary Clinton said that Washington saw it as indispensable to impose additional sanctions on Iran to make it roll up its nuclear programme, which, the West believes, is military in character. Earlier the UK ambassador at the United Nations Mark Lyall Grant said more sanctions could be imposed in late February following consultations by the six negotiators, namely Russia, the USA, China, the UK, France and Germany.
Russia and China are certain, for their part, that Iran's problem should be settled through politico-diplomatic means only, and reject any other scenarios, to say nothing of the use of force. Moscow has repeatedly made known its position at various levels. China's ambassador to the UN Zhang Yesui, the current Security Council chairman, made public Beijing's stand on the issue. He told a news conference on Tuesday that it was premature to consider the imposition of sanctions, since diplomatic efforts still continue to be made. The Chinese diplomat called for greater patience in settling the problem.
Sanctions per se cannot be seen as a panacea. What's more, they often prove to be counterproductive, says an expert with the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Oriental Studies Irina Zviagelskaya.
Iran's leaders, Irina Zviagelskaya says, are currently resisting major pressure from the opposition. Actually, the Iranian leaders may even favour sanctions to a degree, since these would provide for consolidating, rather than complicating their position on the home scene. This does not mean that nothing at all should be done about the problem and that Iran's leaders should be given the green light as regards their nuclear programme. Obviously, efforts should be made to more thoroughly think out all existing options and advance a proposal to Iran that it would be unable to turn down. Iran should compromise on its programme, but the world community should likewise come up with a compromise and some well thought-out proposals.
This is the only way to follow, to check nuclear arms proliferation and avoid the use of force to settle the Iranian problem, something that the US top military brass do not rule out at all. Sober-minded politicians are aware of the dangers inherent in the use of force. For example, the Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in an interview with a satellite TV channel that a military attack on Iran would prove disastrous to the entire world.
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