Washington, September 1
Raising the pitch of its rhetoric against Iran, the Bush Administration has said while the military option against Tehran stayed open, the USA could also pursue economic sanctions beyond what the UN Security Council may determine.

“We’re exercising a lot of diplomatic activity here to try and resolve this peacefully. That’s our objective but no President charged with defending the American people takes the military option off the table,” the American Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said in an interview with CNN.

Accusing Tehran of breaking its obligations under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and providing weapons and financial support to Hezbollah and Hamas, Bolton said: “...the consequences of an Iran with nuclear weapons are not only the capability they’re seeking to deliver them through ballistic missiles, but also the possibility they could transfer a nuclear weapon to a terrorist group.”

The Security Council had set yesterday’s deadline for Iran to stop its nuclear activities threatening sanctions if it failed to comply. The UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, in a report yesterday had confirmed that Tehran had not stopped uranium enrichment despite the warning.

Bolton said both China and Russia at the time of passing the UN resolution had assured they would discuss sanctions if Iran did not meet the deadline.

But the top American envoy to the UN stressed that Washington may go on its own, even over and beyond what Europe and Japan could come up with.

“There is no doubt that there is a wide range of sanctions we could seek to impose on Iran that do not require Security Council authorisation. I think the utility of the Council acting under Chapter 7 is to make the sanctions mandatory for UN members. — PTI