The U.S. Treasury Department hosted a meeting of delegates from 10 partner nations this week to consider additional punitive actions aimed at halting Iran's disputed nuclear activities, the Wall Street Journal reported (see GSN, Oct. 9).
(Oct. 9) -
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, examines equipment at his nation's Natanz uranium enrichment complex in 2006. The Obama administration hosted an 11-nation meeting Wednesday aimed at exploring additional nuclear sanctions against Iran (Getty Images).
U.S. government sources considered the Wednesday gathering the first of multiple meetings involving the 11-country group -- colloquially referred to as "the coalition of like-minded nations" -- that would seek to establish consensus on a plan for imposing further economic penalties on Iran. The strategy would take effect if the Middle Eastern state maintained its refusal to halt atomic activities that could support nuclear weapons development in exchange for diplomatic and financial benefits.
Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Daniel Glaser generally led the meeting, which involved officials from the Group of Seven industrialized nations as well Australia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates. The group did not include China or Russia, two key nuclear negotiators with Iran that have resisted some Western proposals aimed at curbing the Gulf state's atomic ambitions.
Nonetheless, there is a level of opposition by some nations to the strongest punishments under consideration in Washington, according to attendees.
Treasury officials identified what they considered to be eight elements of the Iranian economy vulnerable to isolation, including the nation's financial industry, insurance and reinsurance on its overseas shipments and its ability to sell goods abroad.
Washington also indicated it was examining new methods for targeting individuals involved in Iran's nuclear work with travel bans and asset freezes, participants said.
"The meeting was aimed at exploring as many areas of cooperation as possible. Everything is on the table," said one diplomat who took part in the discussion.
If the 11 nations failed to act against Iran's nuclear program together, they would be forced to pursue independent sanctions against the country, according to one diplomat at the discussion.
"That would be unlikely to force Iran to alter course," the official said. "But there are limitations on some countries' ability to act."
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps would likely be hit by the new sanctions, according to U.S. officials and people who took part in the meeting. Firms run by the organization "may well be an area where we can focus some attention and have the ability to -- to bring others along with us and make it more effective," Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey, who originally requested the meeting, said in congressional testimony on Tuesday (Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 9).
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to lobby Russia next week to endorse tough international penalties against Iran if the nuclear dispute remains unresolved, the Associated Press reported.
Clinton is scheduled to meet Tuesday in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Although Russia has hinted that it could support a new sanctions drive, Moscow might continue opposing new penalties in light of agreements reached with Tehran last week, U.S. officials warned. In an Oct. 1 session with representatives from the five permanent U.N. Security Council member nations and Germany, Iran agreed to open a recently disclosed and still-unfinished uranium enrichment facility to international inspections and to send much of its low-enriched uranium abroad for further refinement. The inspection of the Qum facility by the International Atomic Energy Agency is scheduled for Oct. 25.
"Iran has not bought an indefinite delay" with the concessions "and we want them to know that," one U.S. official said (Matthew Lee, Associated Press I/Google News, Oct. 9).
A defense authorization bill approved by the House of Representatives yesterday would require President Barack Obama to provide lawmakers by the end of January with a formal assessment of his administration's diplomatic efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff, Agence France-Presse reported.
New economic penalties should be imposed on Iran should it refuse to "accept the offer of the United States to engage in diplomatic talks" and "to suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities," the legislation says.
The legislation, which is awaiting Senate approval, calls on Defense Secretary Robert Gates to "submit an annual report to Congress on the current and future military strategy of the Islamic Republic of Iran."
A separate bill under consideration in the Senate would enable various sanctions targeting Iran, including a ban on U.S. business with firms selling refined oil products to the country (Agence France-Presse/Google News, Oct. 8).
A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard official today said his country would swiftly retaliate against Israel in response to an attack by Israel or the United States, AP reported.
"Should a single American or Zionist missile land in our country, before the dust settles, Iranian missiles will blow up the heart of Israel," said Mojtaba Zolnour, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's member in the military organization (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press II/Google News, Oct. 9).
Elsewhere, Venezuelan plans to sell unrefined uranium ore to Iran could come under harsh scrutiny if the International Atomic Energy Agency judged that Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons, Time magazine reported.
"In that event, the world is watching whether Venezuela seems poised to cross any international legal boundaries. But it's still too early to tell what Venezuela is really doing," said Johanna Mendelson Forman, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (Tim Padgett, Time, Oct. 8).