Can "should be" be used for past possibility?
I was reading the following report on the NY Times, and came across the following:
The goal has to be to shut down all of the program that gives Iran the capability to build a bomb. The United Nations Security Council ordered that all enrichment should be ended six years ago, but the major powers were right to start the talks with a more short-term goal: to stop the most dangerous kind of enrichment.
Since the part in bold refers to a past wish and should possibly use the should have construction, how could this be justified instead? And how is it different from the should have one?
Presumably the article refers to UN Security Council Resolution 1696, 31 July 2006, which "demanded that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment activities". That is, the article's phrase "ordered that all enrichment should be ended six years ago" should instead be "ordered six years ago that all enrichment should be ended". The sentence refers not to a past possibility, but to a fact.
It's very odd. I'd have expected should have been ended or, perhaps better, should have ended.
EDIT:
I think jwpat7 has the right answer.
In 2006, six years ago, the United Nations Security Council issued a resolution containing the following words:
2. Demands, in this context, that Iran shall suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including reserach and development, to be verified by the IAEA.
The NY Times is reporting this demand, changing the verb to order and using the typical backshift to make shall into should. The NYT also chooses to use the passive, making all enrichment the subject and omitting the agent (Iran). So instead of:
- The United Nations Security Council ordered that Iran should end all enrichment ...
it becomes:
- The United Nations Security Council ordered that all enrichment should be ended ...
Putting the time adverbial at the beginning of the sentence would have precluded the possibility of readers thinking that six years ago refers to the ending of the enrichment, rather than the passing of the resolution.
- Six years ago the United Nations Security Council ordered that all enrichment should be ended, but ... .