Britain and US plan independent sanctions on Iran

London: Britain, the United States and their allies plan to target Iran's energy sector with tough independent sanctions in a bid to overcome opposition from China and Russia to a hardening of measures against Tehran at the UN Security Council, a senior British official said on Friday.

The official, who demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of ongoing negotiations, said the individual sanctions would target vulnerable areas of the Iranian economy, including the finance sector and investment in the country's oil and gas industries.

But the British official said that the measures would be in addition to - not in place of - a fourth set of tougher UN Security Council penalties, which Britain expects to be considered in New York in October or November, and European Union trade sanctions, which were tightened on Friday.

It follows Iran's stone-walling of a latest offer of incentives from the six-nation bloc of negotiators seeking to persuade Tehran to freeze uranium enrichment. In a letter on Tuesday, Iran insisted it has a right to peaceful nuclear activities and said it would not give a definitive answer on the incentives offer until its own questions about the proposal had been answered.

Officials from the negotiating countries dismissed the letter as disappointing and insufficient.

Plans for independent sanctions would allow Washington and London to introduce much tougher measures - likely to have a severe impact on the Iranian economy - without the backing of China or Russia, which hold veto powers at the Security Council. The British official said that Britain, the US, France, Germany and other countries will likely join their individual efforts to pressure Iran's regime over the long-standing demand of the international community that it halts its nuclear programme, the official said.

"There are areas of the Iranian economy that are vulnerable to targeted sanctions, whether they be in the LNG [liquefied natural gas] sector, investment in oil and gas sectors, imported refined products, reinsurance, [or] other financial areas," the official told reporters in London.

He said the sectors are 'areas we would look at, if we are looking to increase the pressure on the Iranian leadership.'