In Washington, President George W. Bush thanked visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her "strong support" for U.N. Security Council resolution seventeen-thirty-seven, which imposes sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program:
"It was an important message to send Iran, that the free world wants there to be a peaceful future. And we don't see a peaceful future with the Iranians developing a nuclear weapon. . .We're going to continue to work together on the Iranian issue. It's important for us to follow through on this Chapter 7 resolution in order to solve this issue peacefully."
Resolution seventeen-thirty-seven demands that Iran, without delay, suspend all of its uranium-enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, suspend all heavy-water-related projects, and fully cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
It also prohibits all U.N. member states from selling or transferring to Iran materials or technology, expertise or financial assistance, that could contribute to Iran's nuclear activities or to the development of a nuclear weapons delivery system. In addition, the resolution requires all states to freeze the assets of individuals and entities identified as having a significant role in Iran's nuclear activities or in the development of nuclear weapon delivery systems.
U.S. Under Secretary of the Treasury Stuart Levy says that a significant consequence of resolution seventeen-thirty-seven will be "getting governments and financial institutions to pay more attention to Iran's use of deceptive financial practices to facilitate its dangerous conduct." Over the past year, U.S. officials have been speaking with bankers and governments around the world about the need to narrow the Iranian government's access to the international financial system, which Iran exploits to fund terrorists and develop its weapons-of-mass-destruction and missile programs.
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack says "those conversations. . . .about the Iranians' attempts to use the international financial institutions for the purposes of further developing their W-M-D [weapons of mass destruction] and missile programs are going to continue."
The preceding was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government.
