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http://www.newsmax.com/international/Bush_Admin.:_iran/2008/01/16/65039.html
Bush Admin.: We Want New Iran Sanctions
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The Bush administration won't back down on pursuing new sanctions against
Iran over its nuclear program despite questions about their usefulness
raised by government auditors, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will press Washington's case for fresh
U.N. sanctions next week in Europe even as the U.S. considers imposing more
penalties of its own to step up pressure on Tehran to halt activities that
could lead to the development of a nuclear weapon.
Announcing Rice's Jan. 22 meeting in Berlin with her foreign minister
colleagues from the four other permanent members of the U.N. Security
Council and Germany, the State Department said Wednesday the United States
had no plans to change its sanctions strategy in dealing with Iran even
after Congress' investigative arm said the impact of the policy was unclear.
"The whole strategy here is to use various kinds of diplomatic pressure at a
gradually increasing rate to try to get a different set of decisions out of
the Iranian leadership," spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
The administration has unsuccessfully lobbied for the Security Council to
pass a third Iran sanctions resolution for nearly a year but has faced stiff
resistance from Russia and China, which have been unwilling to agree to
either the language or timing of such a move.
McCormack refused to speculate as to whether Tuesday's gathering of the
foreign ministers of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the U.S.
would produce a new resolution.
The meeting will be the first of its kind in four months, since the
ministers last met in late September in New York on the sidelines of the
U.N. General Assembly, and will be the first since the release of a U.S.
intelligence report in December that determined Iran had actually stopped
efforts to develop nuclear weapons in 2003.
President Bush and his top aides have said repeatedly that they still
believe Iran is a threat and that it must agree to international demands to
halt uranium enrichment and reprocessing, which could give the country the
means to produce atomic weapons.
The push to contain Iran has been given new urgency by an incident in the
Persian Gulf this month in which U.S. warships were harassed by the Iranian
naval speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz.
Senior Pentagon officials briefed House members and Senate staff on
Wednesday about that confrontation. Attendees were prohibited from
discussing details from meeting, which was classified, but said much of what
was presented had already been released by the Defense Department.
Rep. Robin Hayes, R-N.C., said the big question left unanswered is whether
Tehran orchestrated the confrontation.
"It becomes speculation about how much planning, how much forethought was
there, and who was in charge," he said.
A senior Iranian official said Tehran is confident of a prompt solution to
the dispute but warned that failure would play into the hands of those who
favor unilateral action and war and criticized Bush for speaking "constantly
about war."
Ali Bagheri, Iran's deputy foreign minister, noted that the last report from
Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, showed
that some of the issues surrounding Tehran's nuclear program had been
resolved. He also pointed to the findings of the U.S. intelligence report.
The Government Accountability Office released a report Wednesday that
questioned the impact of unilateral U.S. sanctions - including a wide array
imposed on banks, parts of its military and senior officials - on Iranian
behavior.
"U.S. officials report that U.S. sanctions have slowed foreign investment in
Iran's petroleum sector, denied parties involved in Iran's proliferation and
terrorism activities access to the U.S. financial system, and provided a
clear statement of U.S. concerns to the rest of the world," the report said.
"However, other evidence raises questions about the extent of reported
impacts," the GAO said.
It noted that since 2003, the Iranian government has signed contracts
reportedly worth about $20 billion with foreign energy firms and that
sanctioned Iranian banks are funding their activities in currencies other
than the dollar.
At the same time, it said that Iran continues to enrich uranium, acquire
advanced weapons technology, and support terrorism. And, the report added
that U.S. agencies do not systematically collect or analyze data
demonstrating the overall impact of the sanctions.
McCormack maintained that sanctions are effective even if they take time to
produce results.
Bush Admin.: We Want New Iran Sanctions
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The Bush administration won't back down on pursuing new sanctions against
Iran over its nuclear program despite questions about their usefulness
raised by government auditors, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will press Washington's case for fresh
U.N. sanctions next week in Europe even as the U.S. considers imposing more
penalties of its own to step up pressure on Tehran to halt activities that
could lead to the development of a nuclear weapon.
Announcing Rice's Jan. 22 meeting in Berlin with her foreign minister
colleagues from the four other permanent members of the U.N. Security
Council and Germany, the State Department said Wednesday the United States
had no plans to change its sanctions strategy in dealing with Iran even
after Congress' investigative arm said the impact of the policy was unclear.
"The whole strategy here is to use various kinds of diplomatic pressure at a
gradually increasing rate to try to get a different set of decisions out of
the Iranian leadership," spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
The administration has unsuccessfully lobbied for the Security Council to
pass a third Iran sanctions resolution for nearly a year but has faced stiff
resistance from Russia and China, which have been unwilling to agree to
either the language or timing of such a move.
McCormack refused to speculate as to whether Tuesday's gathering of the
foreign ministers of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the U.S.
would produce a new resolution.
The meeting will be the first of its kind in four months, since the
ministers last met in late September in New York on the sidelines of the
U.N. General Assembly, and will be the first since the release of a U.S.
intelligence report in December that determined Iran had actually stopped
efforts to develop nuclear weapons in 2003.
President Bush and his top aides have said repeatedly that they still
believe Iran is a threat and that it must agree to international demands to
halt uranium enrichment and reprocessing, which could give the country the
means to produce atomic weapons.
The push to contain Iran has been given new urgency by an incident in the
Persian Gulf this month in which U.S. warships were harassed by the Iranian
naval speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz.
Senior Pentagon officials briefed House members and Senate staff on
Wednesday about that confrontation. Attendees were prohibited from
discussing details from meeting, which was classified, but said much of what
was presented had already been released by the Defense Department.
Rep. Robin Hayes, R-N.C., said the big question left unanswered is whether
Tehran orchestrated the confrontation.
"It becomes speculation about how much planning, how much forethought was
there, and who was in charge," he said.
A senior Iranian official said Tehran is confident of a prompt solution to
the dispute but warned that failure would play into the hands of those who
favor unilateral action and war and criticized Bush for speaking "constantly
about war."
Ali Bagheri, Iran's deputy foreign minister, noted that the last report from
Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, showed
that some of the issues surrounding Tehran's nuclear program had been
resolved. He also pointed to the findings of the U.S. intelligence report.
The Government Accountability Office released a report Wednesday that
questioned the impact of unilateral U.S. sanctions - including a wide array
imposed on banks, parts of its military and senior officials - on Iranian
behavior.
"U.S. officials report that U.S. sanctions have slowed foreign investment in
Iran's petroleum sector, denied parties involved in Iran's proliferation and
terrorism activities access to the U.S. financial system, and provided a
clear statement of U.S. concerns to the rest of the world," the report said.
"However, other evidence raises questions about the extent of reported
impacts," the GAO said.
It noted that since 2003, the Iranian government has signed contracts
reportedly worth about $20 billion with foreign energy firms and that
sanctioned Iranian banks are funding their activities in currencies other
than the dollar.
At the same time, it said that Iran continues to enrich uranium, acquire
advanced weapons technology, and support terrorism. And, the report added
that U.S. agencies do not systematically collect or analyze data
demonstrating the overall impact of the sanctions.
McCormack maintained that sanctions are effective even if they take time to
produce results.
