On March 3rd, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1803 (2008) imposing additional sanctions on Iran due to Iran's failure to fully suspend all enrichment related and reprocessing activities and heavy water-related projects, as well as Iran's failure to resume cooperation with the IAEA.

In summary, the resolution imposes the following measures:

• Further restricts the travel of certain designated individuals who have been determined to be engaged in providing support for Iran's nuclear proliferation related activities, and designates additional individuals subject to travel restrictions.
• Freezes the assets of additional designated individuals and entities.
• Prohibits the sale, directly or indirectly from member State's territories or by their nationals or using their flag vessels or aircraft to, or for use in or benefit of, Iran, whether or not originating in a State's territory, of nuclear-related dual-use equipment, materials, software, and related technology, as described in INFCIRC/254/Rev.7/Part 2 of document S/2006/814. This document is the list of items previously restricted pursuant to Resolution 1737 (2006), and includes such items as certain machine tools, certain materials (such as aluminum, titanium, zirconium), certain valves and vacuum pumps. However, items listed in categories 1 and 2 of the list (Industrial Equipment and Materials) may be supplied provided the prior authorization requirements set forth in Resolution 1737 (2006) are met, and the items listed in categories 3 through 6 may be supplied if notified in advance to the Committee of the Security Council, only when for exclusive use in light water reactors, and when the supply is necessary for technical cooperation provided to Iran by the IAEA. Note that there are only 6 categories of items listed in the document referenced by Resolution 1803.
• Prohibits the sale of complete unmanned aerial vehicle systems, as described in 19.A.3 of Category II of document S/2006/815.
• Requests States exercise vigilance in providing public provided financial support for trade with Iran (such as export credits, guarantees, insurance) to avoid such support contributing to nuclear proliferation activities.
• Requests States exercise vigilance with respect to the activities of financial institutions in their territories with all Iranian banks, and in particular Bank Melli and Bank Saderat to avoid contributing to nuclear proliferation activities.
• Requests States inspect cargos to and from Iran, or aircraft and vessels owned by Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line if there are grounds to believe the aircraft or vessel is carrying goods prohibited for sale or supply to Iran under this latest resolution or prior resolutions, and requires that a report be submitted to the Security Council of any such inspections.

Thus, in terms of additional export restrictions, certain dual-use nuclear items are subject to enhanced restrictions on their ability to be authorized for sale or supply to Iran, and the sale or supply of unmanned aerial vehicle systems meeting the technical parameters set forth in the 2006 UN Security council list of goods are completely prohibited. As a practical matter, the additional export restrictions would actually seem to be of somewhat limited impact because the United States already has a complete trade embargo in place with respect to Iran and other countries were already required to have adopted licensing or authorization procedures with respect to the goods referenced in this latest Resolution. The additional freezing of assets and cautioning with respect to Iranian bank transactions are likely to have more of a business impact for companies that are not prohibited from trading with Iran.