West accuses Iran of shipping arms to Syria

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The four Western powers trying to rein in Iran’s nuclear program are accusing Tehran of shipping arms to Syria in violation of United Nations sanctions and ignoring demands from the UN to open key nuclear facilities to its inspectors.

The United States, Britain, France and Germany expressed growing concern that Iran’s goal is building a nuclear arsenal — not nuclear power plants for peaceful civilian use as Tehran insists.

US Ambassador Susan Rice told a Security Council meeting Thursday on the implementation of UN sanctions that members can’t be complacent about Iran’s “latest leaps forward in its prohibited nuclear activities.”

Rice and ambassadors from the other Western powers expressed serious concern at Iran’s arms exports to President Bashar Assad’s regime in violation of a UN ban against all weapons exports.