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Six Powers to Discuss Iran Sanctions

   VOA News 16 January 2010
   Iranian  technicians,  work  with  foreign  colleagues  at the Bushehr
   Nuclear  Power  Plant, just outside the southern port city of Bushehr,
   Iran.

Photo: AP

   Iranian  technicians,  work  with  foreign  colleagues  at the Bushehr
   Nuclear  Power  Plant, just outside the southern port city of Bushehr,
   Iran

   Six world powers will meet behind closed doors in New York Saturday to
   discuss further sanctions against Iran and its nuclear program.
   The  goal  is  to  pressure  Iran back to the negotiating table and to
   accept  a U.N.-backed deal to send most of Iran's low-enriched uranium
   overseas  for refinement into a higher grade fuel needed for a nuclear
   research reactor.
   Iran ignored an informal December 31 deadline to accept the deal.
   The  U.S.  state  department  has  said it will push for new sanctions
   targeting Iran's Revolutionary Guard, among others.
   Five  of  the  nations participating in Saturday's meeting - the U.S.,
   France,   Britain,  Russia  and  Germany  -  are  sending  high  level
   diplomats.  But China has announced it will send a lower-level envoy.
   China  has  been  reluctant to support new sanctions.  It has said the
   international community should continue to pursue diplomatic options.
   U.S.  state  department  spokesman  P.J.  Crowley  said  Thursday that
   Saturday's   meeting   would  still  be  "useful"  regardless  of  who
   represents China.
   Crowley said the United States will continue to engage China and other
   countries to "convince them that the urgency of the situation requires
   not   only   additional   engagement,"  but  support  for  "additional
   pressure."
   Western  nations  accuse  Iran  of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon
   under  the  guise  of  a  civilian  nuclear program.  Iran insists its
   program is purely peaceful.

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.

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