2006年VOA标准英语-UN Security Council Sets Vote On Iran Sanctions

By Peter Heinlein
United Nations
20 December 2006

The U.N. Security Council is set to adopt a resolution penalizing¹ Iran for its suspect nuclear program. But as VOA's correspondent at the U.N. Peter Heinlein reports, the penalties have been weakened to meet Russia's objections.

U.N. Security Council

European powers Britain, France and Germany Wednesday formally introduced what they hope will be a final draft Iran sanctions resolution. Ambassadors Jean-Marc de La Sabliere of France and Emyr Jones-Parry of Britain predicted prompt, and possibly unanimous, passage. "Our plan was to have the text adopted by the Council by the end of week, so we'll propose to have a vote on Friday. What I am confident is that there will be a vote before Christmas and that that resolution will carry," he said.

But the text given to the Security Council Wednesday is weaker than what the United States and its European sponsors had originally proposed. Earlier drafts included tough sanctions, including a travel ban on Iranian officials involved in suspect nuclear activities.

Some sanctions remain, including a ban on imports and exports of materials and technology relating to uranium enrichment or reprocessing, as well as to ballistic missile delivery systems. The measure would also freeze the assets of 12 people and 11 agencies listed in an annex² the to resolution.

In response to Russian objections, however, the travel ban has been reduced to a voluntary monitoring system. Under its terms, states would be called on to exercise vigilance in allowing entry to anyone named on the list. Those states would be required to report such visits to the Security Council.

The United States had pushed for stronger penalties, and acting³ U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff was clearly disappointed in the latest draft. After meeting with the sponsors Wednesday, Wolff told reporters it was "too early to tell" whether Washington could support the weakened language.

"We have to look at the balance of what this text looks like, what it does accomplish, things that we wanted that aren't the way we wanted them. There are things we wanted that are still in there, that are very, very important, so we'll have to assess the balance of the resolution and decide accordingly," he said.

Russia had strongly opposed the travel ban, and had held up approval of the resolution for months. Moscow's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin signaled Wednesday that the new draft is acceptable to Russia.

"This is a carefully targeted resolution which would create certain problems for Iran in pursuing the activity which the Security Council, the international community does not want them to pursue," he said.

The draft resolution is a response to Iran's failure to comply with an earlier Council resolution that set an August 31st deadline for Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment and return to negotiations⁴.

But Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has said his country's nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, and has refused to halt enrichment. He has said his government will not be intimidated⁵ by the threat of sanctions.

1 penalizing   

对…予以惩罚( penalize的现在分词 )； 使处于不利地位

参考例句：

• This is more than just penalizing a company that you are mad at. 她说：这将远远超过惩罚一个你感到不满的公司。

2 annex   

vt.兼并，吞并；n.附属建筑物

参考例句：

• It plans to annex an England company in order to enlarge the market.它计划兼并一家英国公司以扩大市场。
• The annex has been built on to the main building.主楼配建有附属的建筑物。

3 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

4 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

5 intimidated   

v.恐吓；威胁adj.害怕的；受到威胁的

参考例句：

• We try to make sure children don't feel intimidated on their first day at school. 我们努力确保孩子们在上学的第一天不胆怯。
• The thief intimidated the boy into not telling the police. 这个贼恫吓那男孩使他不敢向警察报告。 来自《简明英汉词典》