The sanctions, imposed under article 41 of the Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, include total halt in trade by any country with Iran involving expertise, materials, and technologies that could be used in the country's nuclear programs. The resolution also freezes the assets of several individuals and organizations related to Iran's nuclear programs. Iran has sixty days to stop enrichment; otherwise further sanctions will be imposed under the same article 41. Independently, the United States has also asked several large western private commercial banks to stop deals with Iran, and it is restricting students from Iran from entering fields that could provide them with knowledge and skills useful for nuclear development. Iran dismissed the resolution as political and without any legal and technical base.

The authorities in Iran have reacted differently to the news of the sanctions. Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, the Leader of the Republic, has remained conspicuously silent, suggesting that he is concerned but does not wish to speak for compromise. Former Presidents Hashemi Rafsanjani and Khatami have said that the sanctions are dangerous for Iran, the region, and the United States, demanding that all sides make compromises. In sharp contrast, President Ahmadinejad has argued that the sanctions are unimportant and that Iran should not and will not make any compromise over its nuclear right. He called the struggle over that right more historic than the struggle for the oil nationalization that led to the toppling of the Government in Iran by the British and American spy agencies in 1953.

The American Iranian Council views this development as most dangerous and believes that the spiral conflict it has set forth may not be contained unless parties compromise. It is most critical that Iran realizes the dangers that the resolution poses to its national security. As we wrote in previous Updates (example), when the process of sanctions takes hold in the UN system, it will follow a logic that can end in an unwanted use of force. While the former Presidents are right in characterizing the resolution as dangerous, their solution of the need for all sides to compromise falls short of what is required to halt and reverse the process toward a dangerous confrontation.

The Islamic Government needs to speak in one voice, understand that any confrontation with the West will have colossal costs for Iran, offer the compromise that will be acceptable by its adversaries, the US in particular, and use the halting of enrichment as an opportunity to open a more serious discussion with the US over the many negotiable issues that stand between them. To use the trouble that the US is having in Iraq as a reason for resisting the UNSC's demand could in the long run prove most detrimental to the Iran's national interests. The Islamic Republic must also note that it is in the UNSC because it is being accused of endangering the world peace (first ever for Iran), the resolution 1737 was passed unanimously, and that any future resolutions will also pass the UNSC with a similar ease.