Iran leaves the world no recourse but to apply penalties aimed at curbing a fast-track nuclear program, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday.
In London ostensibly for conferences on Afghanistan and Yemen, Clinton has devoted significant time to Iran. She is trying to win support from countries whose support the United States will need to win and enforce new U.N. sanctions.
"Our efforts to apply pressure on Iran are not meant to punish the Iranian people. They are meant to change the approach the Iranian government has taken toward its nuclear program," Clinton said at a news conference with other foreign ministers.
The Obama administration has said Iran appears bent on developing nuclear weapons, although Iran claims its nuclear work is peaceful. Iran is thought to have stockpiled more than enough nuclear material to manufacture a single bomb, and more is being made daily.
Administration officials have invited new talks with Iran, but with no sign that Iran wants to do business, the focus has turned to penalties.
"As Iran's leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt," President Barack Obama said in Wednesday's State of the Union address. "They, too, will face growing consequences. That is a promise."
Iran last week rejected a Western-backed compromise to export most of the fuel for processing into fuel that could run a peaceful medical reactor but could not power a bomb.
China is expected to be the biggest obstacle to winning a fourth round of U.N. penalties, and Clinton brought her sanctions specialists with her to see Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. Clinton asked the diplomat to talk about the importance of pursuing both outreach and penalties, the State Department said.
Clinton called the session with Chinese officials productive but would not elaborate.
Ahead of a sanctions push at the United Nations expected by the end of the week, Clinton also met Thursday with senior officials from key Arab and European nations. Accompanied by State Department and Treasury Department leaders on the issue, Clinton discussed Iran with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, France, Germany and Italy.
Iran was part of her talks a day earlier with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, also a traditional skeptic about the value of economic penalties against oil-rich Iran.
U.S. officials say they are preparing to circulate an outline of tough new Iran sanctions at the U.N. The proposed measures would target elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps with new measures and would target financial institutions using existing U.N. sanctions resolutions.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are still ongoing between the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Britain, China, Russia and France -- as well as Germany and other countries.
The Security Council has imposed three rounds of sanctions on Iran over suspicions it is hiding nuclear activities and fears that it could retool its enrichment program from making low-grade material to produce nuclear power into producing weapons-grade uranium for nuclear warheads.
The United States is trying to maintain six-power unity on how to deal with Iran. On Wednesday, Clinton said she thinks Russia, China and others are coming around to the view that it is time for the Iranian government to face consequences for failing to prove its nuclear program is peaceful.
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