The measure, which may be adopted next week, would penalize Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. Enriched uranium can be used in nuclear bombs or for peaceful ends.
The major-power agreement includes a ban on Iranian arms exports, an assets freeze on individuals and firms involved in Tehran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and a call to nations and institutions to bar new grants or loans.
The mild sanctions on Iran may have a bigger impact on Iran than I figured simply due to the mismanagement of the mullahs and Ahmadinejad that has done more harm to their own economy than the international community could ever agree to do in the UN.
I do find it interesting that the resolution bans Iranian weapons exports. Under this resolution, when we identify Iranian weapons in southern Lebanon or in Iraq, we can point to an Iranian violation of a UN ban as a basis for acting against Tehran. It won't matter whether the Iranian government is exporting the weapons from the top or if lower levels are doing it on their own. That debate was always pointless and now it won't matter, if I'm drawing the right conclusion from the article.
The British are the sponsors of the resolution.
Ahmadinejad may call it a torn piece of paper, but the legal fetishists who scurry through the halls of the UN live or die by these pieces of paper. And if a torn piece of paper gives us authority to stop Iran's nuclear threat, then we'll have that torn piece of paper.
