U.S. official: Further sanctions possible for Iran

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Burns took pains to rebut that view after his hour-long meeting with ElBaradei.

Ahmadinejad “said in September the Security Council case is closed,” Burns told reporters. “I am sorry to tell him it’s not closed. There are sanctions being implemented ... and there will be a third Security Council sanctions resolution” if Iran continues to defy the council.

Burns said he and ElBaradei agreed that “it’s important that Iran finally tell the truth about its activities in the past ... but we also agreed that all of us” back a third round of sanctions if necessary.

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Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, suggested a way out of the crisis is a proposal by the Arab nations around the Persian Gulf to form a consortium that would build a uranium enrichment plant to supply the region’s states, including Iran, with reactor fuel.

Main area of tension
Speaking with the Middle East Economic Digest in London, he said the plant should be sited in a neutral country outside the region.

“The U.S. is not involved, but I don’t think it (would be) hostile to this, and it would resolve a main area of tension between the West and Iran,” the magazine quoted Prince Saud as saying.

He said the idea had been proposed to Iran’s government, which said it would consider the plan. The Iranians previously ignored a similar proposal from Russia — to host Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities on its territory to allay Western concerns about monitoring.

The agreement between the IAEA and Iran commits Tehran to clear up by December all questions about its program — much of which the Iranians had kept secret until discovered four years ago.

In Tehran, Iranian officials and IAEA representatives wrapped up four days of talks on some of those questions Thursday, state media reported. The Iranian side expressed satisfaction with the discussions, but there was no comment from the U.N. agency.