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Israel's UN ambassador on Tuesday said
prospects for crippling UN sanctions against Iran were "grim" because
Russia and China want to use diplomacy to convince Iran to scale back
its nuclear ambitions.

"The chances now seem grim regarding
sanctions that will be crippling," Ambassador Gabriela Shalev told
reporters here.

She said Russia and China, two veto-wielding
members of the UN Security Council, "are still looking to the diplomatic
track" and appear reluctant to back a new round of tough sanctions
proposed by Washington and its Western allies.

"The Chinese and
the Russians still hope that diplomacy will work. They do not want to
inflict any harm on the Iranian people," she added.

Shalev said
that if the 15-member council was unable to agree on crippling
sanctions, then Israel "will look to the countries themselves" to slap
additional bilateral sanctions.

On Monday, Israeli Vice Prime
Minister Silvan Shalom called on the Security Council to impose
"crippling" sanctions on Iran over its nuclear defiance.

"The time
has come to impose crippling sanctions on the Iranians and I asked to
put the 300 leaders of the Revolutionary Guards that are controlling
Iran these days on the (U... >>>