AFP, Sydney, June 15, 2010  – Australia said Tuesday it would impose new sanctions on Iran as part of ramped up international efforts to encourage Tehran to curb its nuclear ambitions.
The United Nations Security Council last week placed its fourth set of sanctions on Iran, while EU foreign ministers have proposed new restrictions which go even further.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the latest Australian sanctions would apply to a bank and a shipping company, as well as a man connected to a construction firm owned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.
’These new measures put Australia at the forefront of efforts to persuade Iran to reverse its current path of confrontation with the international community,’ he said in a statement.
Smith said the new sanctions would apply to Bank Mellat, which had facilitated transactions involving Iranian nuclear and missile entities, and the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line (IRISL), which had transported goods for Tehran’s nuclear and missile programmes.
They would also apply to General Rostam Qasemi, who Smith said was the commander of the Khatem ol-Anbiya Construction Organisation, a firm owned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Australia, which has imposed its own sanctions against some 40 other Iranian individuals and organisations, already supports all UN Security Council resolutions against the Islamic republic.
The new measures mean that the firms identified will be unable to do business in Australia while General Qasemi will be banned from entering the country without the permission of the foreign minister.
’Australia is taking these additional measures to demonstrate our real concern about Iran’s nuclear programme,’ Smith said.
Smith said the opportunity for dialogue with Iran was not over, but noted it posed ’potentially with the most difficult peace and security issue the international community will be confronted with over the next 12 to 18 months.’
’Australia again calls on Iran to conduct itself in accordance of its international legal obligations and to seek to resolve this matter through a change of policy as quickly as possible,’ he told parliament.
New UN sanctions announced last week authorise high-seas inspections of boats believed to be carrying banned items to Iran and increase the number of people and groups subject to travel restrictions and financial sanctions.