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Sources said the Obama administration is working behind the scene to block slapping a new set of sanctions on Tehran by the G8. |
CAIRO — The US administration of Barack Obama is opposing a new set of sanctions planned by the Group of Eight against Iran over post-election unrest, Haaretz reported on Saturday, July 4.
US diplomatic sources told the daily that administration officials are working behind the scene to block slapping a new set of sanctions on Tehran by the G8.
The Obama administration is worried that slapping new sanctions could backfire and steer Tehran away from engagement with the West, said the sources.
The American move follows calls by G8 countries to impose new sanctions on Tehran over handling the post-election protests.
Iran sanctions were expected to top the agenda of G8 next week summit.
"The general leaning [among G8 leaders] is toward sanctions," Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said earlier this week.
The new sanctions could include forbidding western oil companies from maintaining commercial ties with Iran.
The UN Security Council has already slapped three rounds of sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program, which the West suspects aiming to create a nuclear bomb.
Iran was gripped by unrest since last month's presidential elections, which incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won in landslide.
Reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi refused to acknowledge the results, calling for protests, which left at least 20 people dead.
Iran has accused the CIA and Britain of being behind the unrest, the worst since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
New Ebb
This comes as the Iranian-European relations hit a new ebb over Iran's plans to press charges against a British embassy staffer over the post-election violence.
"I was told by a close relative that he is accused of acting against national security," lawyer Abolsamad Khorramshahi told Agence France-Presse (AFP) of his client, detained embassy political analyst Hossein Rassam.
"I have not met with him yet, but I will ask the judiciary for an appointment."
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannat, the head of Iran's powerful Guardians Council, said Friday that some local British embassy staff would be put on trial for their alleged role in stoking violence after the June 12 presidential vote.
The statements drew immediate fire from Britain, with Foreign Secretary David Miliband demanding "clarifications".
European Union governments also on Friday called in Iranian envoys across the 27-nation bloc in protest at the detention of British embassy staff.
A total of nine local staff at London's embassy in Tehran were initially arrested late last month, but the British government said seven have since been released.
Meanwhile, Iranian leaders said they have obtained confessions from top reformist officials that they plotted to bring down the government with a "velvet" revolution, reported The New York Times.
Top reformers have confessed to taking velvet revolution “training courses” outside the country, according to Iranian websites associated with prominent conservatives.
The Alef website referred to a video of Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who served as vice president in former president Mohammed Khatami's government, as showing that he tearfully "welcomed being defrocked and has confessed to provoking people, causing tension and creating media chaos."
On Saturday, the conservative Kayhan newspaper called for Ahmadinejad's main challenger, Mousavi, to be tried for treason, along with Khatami.
The daily accused Mousavi of "killing innocent people, inciting riots, hiring thugs to assault people, evident cooperation with foreigners and playing the part of US fifth column."
"Mousavi and Khatami should account for these horrendous crimes and evident treason in an open tribunal," it added.
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