By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The Bush administration reaffirmed its intention Monday to pursue UN sanctions against Iran if it should defy the August 31 deadline for halting enrichment of uranium.
It is the will of the international community "to go down the pathway of sanctions" if Iran does not comply with UN demands that it stop the program and open its facilities to international inspection, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Not only is Iran enriching uranium, a crucial step toward making nuclear weapons, it is constructing heavy water facilities that could be used potentially for production of plutonium for weapons, McCormack said.
Iran said Monday it was not worried about the UN deadline. "Moving in the international framework is not a matter of concern for us," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said in Teheran.