From The Asia Times
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

Even though Security Council Resolution 1747 was passed this weekend to impose tougher new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, the mood at the United Nations was anything but celebratory.

The latest sanctions block Iranian arms exports and impose an international freeze on the assets of 28 people and organizations involved in Iran’s nuclear and missile programs. The measures were adopted in a unanimous vote and give Iran another 60 days to comply with the UN’s nuclear demands to stop uranium-enrichment activities or, most likely, face even harsher measures.

Yet with the council’s South African president expressing “deep disappointment” about the disregard by the permanent five (the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China and Russia) plus Germany for a call for a 90-day time-out, and other non-permanent members criticizing the council’s “selectivity”, the vote was cast under a growing internal fissure at the UN.

This is a divide between the nations with nuclear weapons and developing nations in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The issue is further clouded by the Iranian seizure on Friday of 15 British sailors and British complaints of growing Iran-inspired attacks by Iraqi militants against their forces in southern Iraq.

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