UN: Iran: UN's Security Council votes unanimously to impose the complete set of sanctions on Iran

CNN reports in breaking news (Mar24,2k7 posted EDT 4:00pm) the final outcome for Iran on its nuclear project:

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to impose new sanctions on Iran because of its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment program.

Western nations, including the United States, contend Iran is using the project to develop nuclear weapons, but Iran says the program will only be for civilian use.

The new measures follow a resolution adopted December 23 that prohibited trade with Iran in nuclear materials and ballistic missiles. It also froze assets of individuals and institutions involved in Tehran's nuclear programs.

Friday, just before the day of the vote, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Navy intercepted 2 British swiftboats with their 15 Brit sailors and marines who had boarded an auto smuggling ship in a disputed location, either in Iraqi wars or Iranian. Today, following the unanimous UN SC vote, Iran is claiming that the Brit military personnel have confessed to trespassing.

Regarding the Revolutionary Guard element, the reports, to my mind, suggest that perhaps a rogue faction or the dominant party in the RG has used the Brit anti-smuggling operation as an excuse to make its own statement regarding the UN's then-only-proposed-now-enacte4 sanctions against top commanders of the RG, among others similarly sanctioned. refWrite earlier this month (May16,2k7) carried the stunning report by Mohsen Sazegara, a co-founder of the Guard, as to its expansion and thirst for power within and outside Iran. (After a time in prison in Iran, this scholar escaped the country and now is a researcher at Harvard.)

The sanctions, agreed on last week by the six Security Council countries with veto powers, would ban Iranian arms exports and freeze the assets of 28 additional individuals and organizations involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programs. About a third of those are linked to the Revolutionary Guard, an elite military corps.

The resolution also calls for a voluntary travel embargo on Iranian officials and Revolutionary Guard commanders.

That both Russia and China joined in making the new sanctions unanimous, however, makes them less than fully credible. Especially in the case of China. Perhaps that is the clue to disciphering the obscure terminology of "a voluntary travel embargo." For now, I take that to mean each nati8on must decide for itself whether or not to impose the travel embargo, those who do bother to impose it now at least are not violating the "spirit of the sanctions." And Western diplomacy can work on bringing more and more countries to titen the travel embargo, which is expected to cramp the style of many of the Iranian leaders on the list.

As a matter of abstract principle, I don't think Iran should be denied the use of peaceful nuclear power, any more than any other nation. However, the Security Council with this second round of sanctions has made it clear that Iran is not trusted to restrict itself to peaceful uses. Further, the shadow of a nuclear-armed Iran would have a crippling effect on the independence of the Gulf States, who would continue only on the sufferance of the Persian Menace. For the Gulf States, there is for the most part also a sectarian differential between their Sunni heritage and the now-aggressive Shia heritage of Iran. The Gulf States don't want to be bullied by a nuclear-armed neibour dominated by Persian (Farsi) -speaking Shia.