RTTNews, September 17, 2008 – The U.S. State Department announced Tuesday a new meeting of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany has been set for Friday in Washington over Iran’s controversial nuclear program, media reports said.

The meeting will call for fresh sanctions against Tehran over its controversial nuclear program, proposed Monday by the United States and then by France 24 hours later.

The meeting comes a few days before next week’s summit in New York between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and British, French, Russian, Chinese and German foreign ministers, and before the annual opening of the ordinary session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Sean McCormack, spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said that the G5 plus one nations would discuss the next steps to be taken to convince Tehran to give up its uranium enrichment program, which was not suspended, as confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

According to a Monday report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, due to Iran’s non-cooperation, an investigation into that country’s alleged studies to make a nuclear warhead from its uranium enrichment processes has made little progress.