UN Draft Resolution on Iran’s Nuclear Program

The draft of a new UN Security Council resolution on Iran’s nuclear program was circulated late on Tuesday. It calls on states “to exercise vigilance” over transactions involving Iranian banks, including the Central Bank of Iran. The draft resolution also requires countries to inspect ships or aircraft into or out of Iran if there are suspicions they are carrying banned material.

The circulation of the draft resolution comes after Iran struck a deal with Brazil and Turkey to send 1,200 kg of its existing LEU to Turkey in a swap for 120 kg of higher enriched uranium fuel for its medical research reactor. The supporters of the UN draft resolution argue that the new sanctions are needed as Iran has continued expanding its current inventory of LEU and will have more LEU on hand even after the swap takes place. They point out that the 1,200 kg LEU which comprised some 80 percent of Iran’s inventory last October, when Iran rejected a similar swap proposal, is now less than half of the country’s inventory. Apparently all five permanent members of UNSC have signed off on the draft resolution.

The critics of the proposed resolution, led by Brazil and Turkey, argue that Iran’s acceptance of the swap arrangement, even if it does not include most of the LEU it currently holds, represents a diplomatic breakthrough to end the nuclear impasse. Iran, the argument goes, has for the first time since Ahmadinejad’s rise to power, has agreed to a compromise involving the country’s nuclear program that can be used as a first step to resolve the impasse peacefully.