The United States yesterday circulated a draft resolution in the Security Council that would bolster an arms embargo, enhance authority to seize Iranian cargo suspected of ties to nuclear or missile programmes, restrict financial transactions and impose travel bans and asset freezes on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

It is the outcome of long days of work to reconcile Western countries, who want tougher sanctions, and Russia and China, who rather water them down.

“We find the language of the resolution acceptable,” Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said. “We can live with it because it is focused adequately on non-proliferation matters” and will not “create any problems for normal economic activity.”

“All parties should grab this opportunity to step up diplomatic efforts,” China’s Ambassador Li Baodong said. “The purpose of sanctions is to bring the Iranian side to the negotiating table, not to punish innocent people.”

Although tougher, sanctions will not prevent Russia and China from trading with Iran.

Unlike Western capitals, Moscow and Beijing like the agreement reached two days ago by Turkey, Brazil and Iran that would see Tehran hand over its enriched uranium stockpile in exchange for 20 per cent-enriched nuclear fuel. The international community had promoted such a deal to prevent Iran from using enriched uranium for military applications.

If approved, the proposal would be the fourth in a series of sanctions against Iran, which has so far refused to place its nuclear programme under international controls.

In Iran, reactions in opposition circles are different. Members of the green wave told AsiaNews that tougher sanctions would not reduce the power of Revolutionary Guards, which reaches throughout the economy.

For them, the international community is focusing too much on one factor, Iran’s nuclear programme. “The best and safest way to end Iran’s nuclear threat is to change Ahmadinejad’s regime,” they say. “In order to do this, they must help the green wave, something that is not happening.”

For representative of the opposition movement, the anniversary of last year’s rigged elections next June should provide a great opportunity to support the green wave.

“All this talk about sanctions, including the agreement with Turkey and Brazil, distract world public opinion from the real issues, namely human rights and democracy in Iran”.

The green wave movement emerge following the fraudulent re-election of Ahmadinejad’s on 13 June 2009.

Members of the movement want to build a democratic Iran that is open to the international community, including Israel, and for this reason continue their protest even at the cost of further arrests, killings and torture.