Iran and Sanctions: Ready to Resist

Although Iran claims to be pursuing only a peaceful programme of civilian energy, its decision to resume the enrichment of uranium has provoked a storm of fierce international protest and elicited strong calls for its immediate referral to the United Nations Security Council. After more than two years of negotiations, the diplomatic push to solve the nuclear issue has been widely pronounced dead. Hopes have instead been pinned on UN-imposed sanctions to force Tehran’s compliance with its obligation, as a signatory of the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty, to prevent ‘the diversion of nuclear energy from peaceful uses to nuclear weapons’.