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US prepares targeted sanctions against Iran | The Obama administration is readying sanctions against discrete elements of the Iranian government, including those involved in the deadly crackdown on Iranian protesters, marking a shift to a more aggressive
US posture toward the Islamic republic, US officials said. Ten months after
President Obama set a year-end deadline for Iran to engage with world powers on
its nuclear program, Tehran has failed to respond other than an abortive gesture
in the fall. Sanctions would probably be imposed in three ways -- at the U.N.
Security Council, with like-minded countries and unilaterally -- and U.S. officials
would pursue them more or less simultaneously, with initial emphasis on pressing
forward at the United Nations in February. The Washington Post quotes the officials
as saying that the Obama administration wants to carefully target sanctions to
avoid alienating the Iranian public -- while keeping the door ajar to a resolution
of the struggle over Iran's nuclear program. The aim of any sanctions is to force
the Tehran government to the negotiating table, rather than to punish it for either
its apparent push to develop a nuclear weapon or its treatment of its people,
they add. "We have never been attracted to the idea of trying to get the whole
world to cordon off their economy. We have to be deft at this, because it matters
how the Iranian people interpret their isolation -- whether they fault the regime
or are fooled into thinking we are to blame," said a senior U.S. official, speaking
on the condition of anonymity. As a result, top officials are showing little interest
in legislation racing through Congress that would punish companies that sell refined
petroleum to Iran. Another senior official said. "Our intention is to keep the
door open." Throughout the year, Obama had reached out directly to the Iranian
leadership, through video messages and two personal letters to Iran's supreme
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an effort to break through the antagonism and
distrust that had built up since the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy. When the
protests over a disputed presidential election began in June, Obama's initial
response was muted to keep the prospects for engagement open. France, an advocate
of firmer pressure on Iran, will hold the rotating chairmanship of the Security
Council that month. The precise contours of the administration's sanctions policy
are still being decided, but high on the list of targets is the Iranian Revolutionary
Guard Corps, the arm of the military that has been centrally involved in the attacks
on demonstrators and that is playing an increasingly bigger role in Iran's economy.
The increasingly central role of the Revolutionary Guard in both the economy and
the protests, officials said, makes it a target of possible resentment among the
Iranian public -- and for tough U.S. sanctions. But officials insist that sanctions
would not be linked to the protests. |
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