World nations increasingly frustrated over Iran’s nuclear stonewalling

With the world powers increasingly frustrated over Tehran's recalcitrance over its nuclear program, the US and France have agreed a list of tougher sanctions to be submitted to the UN Security Council. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said this after meeting on Friday with his American counterpart Hillary Clinton.

This toughened stand is fully endorsed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy who said that after months of failed attempts to  persuade the Iranians to give up their military nuclear effort, it was now time to push for  a bare knuckles UN resolution.

The Times of London newspaper earlier reported that the proposed new sanctions against Iran could be submitted to the Security Council within the next few days and voted on already before this month is out. The paper also said that the call for tougher measures against Tehran came against the backcloth of waning Russian and Chinese opposition to turning up the heat on the Iranians.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, warned Tehran on Friday that it would face further economic insecurity and diplomatic isolation if it did not relinquish its nuclear effort. Everything now points to a growing consolidation between the so-called P5 plus Germany, and Russia's Foreign Minister only reiterated this after meeting with Clinton in London.

"We are disappointed by the lack of constructive Iranian response to  the proposal made by the "3 plus 2" group, Lavrov said. We can't wait forever and our partners are already talking about additional steps to be discussed at the Security Council to get things going".

Russia wants to be sure that the Iranian nuclear program has purely peaceful goals in mind and urges its western partners to  be guided exclusively by the need to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime and nothing else.

As to the Chinese, their Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi still hopes for a diplomatic solution to the problem but, at the same time, does not rule out tougher sanctions against Tehran.