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Legislators are growing increasingly frustrated with President Barack Obama's seeming unwillingness to pull the trigger on an Iran sanctions package that is already locked and loaded. The American public should be frustrated, too. The Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (IRPSA), if enacted, would put the squeeze on foreign oil companies that currently help the Mullahs refine petroleum, as well as the insurance companies that underwrite this trade. If the sanctions work, they could stem the flow of 30 to 40 percent of Iranian oil, since the Mullahs don't actually have sufficient refining capacity to meet their domestic needs. In short,...

What was the bottom line of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov? America’s punting on a request for sanctions on Iran, as the Washington Post reported (and Jennifer discussed)? Or was it instead a case of “Russia Resists U.S. on Iran Sanctions,” as the Associated Press reported? Of course, both amount to the same thing. Clinton’s statement that it wasn’t yet time for sanctions on Iran to pressure it to stop its nuclear program is merely an admission that the administration’s plan to gain international support for restraining Iran is dead in the water....

All the diplomatic pillow talk about “cooperation” and “encouragement” is cover for Obama’s Russia gambit’s having gone down in flames. Smiling through failure is becoming the default occupation of the Obama State Department, and no one seems more enthused to be at the center of the wreckage than Hillary Clinton. She is pure spin, no success...

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday sought to present a united front with Russia on the Iranian nuclear crisis, saying there was not yet any hurry for new sanctions against Tehran. On her first trip to Russia as chief US diplomat, Clinton praised Moscow for its "extremely cooperative" behaviour in the standoff over Iran's programme, which Western nations fear is a veiled attempt to build a nuclear bomb. Aides had said ahead of her visit that the trip was partly aimed at winning Russian support for eventual sanctions against Tehran if diplomacy did not work. But Clinton denied...

Iran's oil minister has warned companies that sell gasoline not to halt deliveries to the Islamic Republic in response to Western sanctions moves, saying they would be dropped from its list of suppliers. The United States and its European allies are exploring ways of targeting fuel imports into Iran if the country continues to press on with its nuclear program. "If the suppliers of gasoline avoid exporting it to Iran...they will be eliminated from the National Iranian Oil Company's list of suppliers," business daily "Abrar-e Eqtesadi" quoted Oil Minister Massud Mirkazemi as saying. Iran, the world's fifth-largest crude oil exporter,...

Obama administration officials at a Senate hearing Tuesday refrained from backing proposed Iran sanctions legislation or giving a deadline for Teheran to halt uranium enrichment during its negotiations with the US and other world powers. Yet US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said that "we would be prepared to move ahead swiftly and effectively with additional [sanctions] measures" if the talks, which he stressed were not open-ended, failed to bear fruit. He expressed skepticism over Iran's intentions, saying the administration was "realistic" about the prospects of engagement; he later said that Iran's initial gestures are "the first concrete evidence...

Iran's traditional emblem has been the Persian lion. Russia's should be a vulture: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin intends to feed on the carcass left by any confrontation with Iran. For Moscow, this crisis isn't about Tehran's acquisition of nukes. It's about Russia's acquisition of a stranglehold on global energy markets. Putin's playing with fire -- but he's sure we'll be the ones burned. As for the Obama administration's desperate (and stunningly naive) hope that economic sanctions can deter President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and his fellow thugs-for-Allah from pursuing nuclear weapons, forget it.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates Says Severe Sanctions On Iran Could Work Gates says additional sanctions may force an economically squeezed Iran to change its nuclear policy. He questions the value of military strikes. By Paul Richter September 27, 2009 Reporting from Washington - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today the severe sanctions the West is threatening against Iran could force a change in the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions, especially since the country is already under severe economic distress. Speaking as officials from six world powers prepare to meet with Iranian negotiators this week to discuss Tehran's nuclear program, Gates...

Although Bejamin Netanyahu and Gordon Brown both had much longer distances to travel this week than President Obama, each managed to bring something along that POTUS didn't: a pair of testicles. After the revelation that Iran has been jerking the international community's chain over nukes, it seemed like the perfect time for President Obama to feel safe engaging in a little meddling. Despite the offer of a loaner pair from Brown, Obama responded in classic fashion, hitting the New Revised Milquetoast Dictionary for a response that didn't sound too, you know, leader-like. There's a discernible difference between a cautious approach...

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 25 -- President Obama and the leaders of France and Britain on Friday blasted Iran's construction of a previously unknown uranium enrichment facility and demanded that Tehran immediately fulfill its obligations under international law or risk the imposition of harsh new sanctions. "Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow," Obama said, detailing how the facility at Qom had been under construction for years without being disclosed, as required, to the International Atomic Energy Association. "International law is not an empty promise." British Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused Iran of "serial deception" that he said "will shock...

The Jerusalem Post reports that Congress is gearing up to move ahead with new sanctions on Iran in the event that the Iranians do not offer a serious response to the Obama administration's diplomatic overtures. And the Iranians have not offered a serious response to the Obama administration's outreach, offering instead an absurd program for talks on full of lefty talking points about environmental issues but nothing about the country's nuclear program. The Obama administration has accepted this Iranian offer. As one Hill staffer put it to me in an email today, "The Iranians just spit into the face of...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States on Friday vowed to keep up its tough sanctions regime on North Korea after Pyongyang said it had reached the final stage of enriching uranium. "We continue to be committed to ensuring that North Korea upholds its international obligations and we continue to strongly implement the sanctions that were approved," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "Our goal continues to be, and will continue to be the denuclearization" of the Korean peninsula, he said. In a defiant response to tougher UN sanctions, North Korea said Friday it was building more plutonium-based atomic weapons and...

Unless Iran responds positively to President Obama's offer of talks on its nuclear program by next month, it could face what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls "crippling sanctions." That was the message from Administration officials touring the Middle East in recent weeks. And it's backed by congressional moves to pass legislation aimed at choking off the gasoline imports on which Iran relies for almost a third of its consumption, by punishing third-country suppliers. It sounds impressive and, for an undiversified economy like Iran's, potentially calamitous. But a number of Iran analysts are skeptical that new sanctions will break the...

TEL AVIV – The U.S. will seek sanctions waivers to export aircraft and other equipment to Syria, U.S. officials confirmed today. Syria is in an open military alliance with Iran. It hosts the chiefs of several major Palestinian terrorist organizations. The country is accused of aiding the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yesterday, Imad Mustafa, the Syrian envoy to the U.S., said the Obama administration had lifted a ban imposed in 2004 on exporting goods to the Syrian Aviation Industry. He said the message was delivered to Syrian President Bashar Assad by George Mitchell, Obama's envoy to...

The Obama team has lifted a ban on the sale of some high-tech equipment to Syria. A recognized state sponsor of terrorism. WSJ reports: "The Obama administration has told Syria that it will work to ease U.S. sanctions against Damascus, as Washington intensifies its pursuit of détente with a longtime Middle East rival." [As Obama intensifies his efforts to legitimize a dictatorial state sponsor of terrorism, having just recently decided to return a U.S. ambassador] "The U.S. decision targets spare aircraft parts, information-technology products and telecommunications equipment, sales of which have been restricted by U.S. sanctions on Syria enacted in...

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he was in favor of tougher UN sanctions aimed at forcing Iran to halt its nuclear program, which he described as a "threat" to the world. ... yada yada yada

The Obama administration’s Jewish apologists were working overtime last week to pretend there is nothing unusual or unsavory about the president’s penchant for conflict with Israel. Indeed, many on the Left have been talking as if Israel’s resistance to Obama’s demand that no Jews be allowed to build homes in Jerusalem is nothing more than a political ploy on the part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to this interpretation, Obama’s demand for halting housing projects in those city parts occupied by Jordan from 1948 to 1967 is nothing to get upset about and Netanyahu is merely playing to the...

WASHINGTON - After a half-year of extending patient feelers to Iran, President Barack Obama has set a timeline -- warning Tehran it must show willingness to negotiate an end to its nuclear program by September or face consequences. If the West weighs new moves against Iran this fall, as Obama suggested Friday, it will likely mean new U.N. sanctions or unilateral U.S. penalties, rather than military strikes. Obama told reporters in Italy, where he met with other world leaders, that there is now a September "time frame" for Iran to respond to offers to discuss its nuclear program. While he...

The United States will call for "even stricter sanctions on Iran to try to change the behavior of the regime," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a TV interview broadcast late Tuesday. Washington remained concerned about what Clinton called Iran's "pursuit of nuclear weapons," which could "be very destabilizing in the Middle East and beyond," Clinton told the private Venezuelan television network Globovision.

Both Russia and the United States are likely to oppose the imposition of further political or economic sanctions on Iran at this week's G8 Summit. This, despite pressure from other G8 nations to punish Tehran for its violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters at home, as well as to influence its nuclear development policy.

The United States is opposed to enacting a new set of financial sanctions against Iran that are due to be discussed in the G8 summit next week, diplomatic officials in New York reported Friday. According to officials, sanctions against Iran are expected to top the G8's agenda. Sources are also predicting a pointed debate between the heads of the industrialized nations over an appropriate response to Iranian authorities' suppression of reformist demonstrations in Iran led by Mir Hossein Mousavi and other Iranian opposition leaders. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi hinted in a newspaper interview earlier in the week that the...

As diplomats prepare for the G8 Summit, many are working toward a resolution to impose additional economic sanctions on Iran. There is one country working hard to prevent new sanctions, the United States. Apparently Europe feels that Iran's continued development of its nuclear weapons program, its crackdown on their own people and the arrest of British Diplomats is worthy of new sanctions. President Obama's myopic pursuit of his engage the Islamist terrorist regime policy is making him reluctant to upset the Iranian government, with new sanctions. Its Neville Chamberlain time in the oval office:

The United States is opposed to enacting a new set of financial sanctions against Iran that are due to be discussed in the G8 summit next week, diplomatic officials in New York reported Friday. According to officials, sanctions against Iran are expected to top the G8's agenda. Sources are also predicting a pointed debate between the heads of the industrialized nations over an appropriate response to Iranian authorities' suppression of reformist demonstrations in Iran led by Mir Hossein Mousavi and other Iranian opposition leaders.

A North Korean ship being tracked by the United States Navy on suspicion of transporting weapons to Burma has turned around, US officials have said. They said they did not know where the ship was now heading, but South Korean media said it was going home. The UN passed a tough sanctions resolution, Number 1874, allowing for inspections of air, ship and land shipments in and out of North Korea. The resolution followed North Korea's nuclear and missile tests in May. The Kang Nam 1 ship set sail from North Korea on 17 June and appeared to be bound for...

This article, from a Naples-based Reuters correspondent, appears to suggest that some European countries want new sanctions on Iran in response to its crackdown on protesters, but the Obama administration does not, though maybe this is the correspondent putting words in the president's mouth. The relevant section: As Italian prime minister Berlusconi is acting president of the G8, but it remains to be seen how much support there is for a tightening of sanctions already adopted against Iran over its nuclear programme by the United Nations, the European Union and the United States. US President Barack Obama is trying to...

China has given its word to the United States that it is "deeply committed" to implementing tough new nuclear sanctions against North Korea, a senior US official said Friday. The official also said that as part of the effort to put a straitjacket on Pyongyang after its latest nuclear test and missile launches, Washington had set up an inter-agency team to coordinate the sanctions with other nations.

China will not impose sanctions on North Korea independently of a UN resolution. The North depends on China for most of its energy and food. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang on Thursday said, "Measures related to North Korea should affect neither North Korean people's livelihood nor their normal economic and trading activities." He was answering views that the North would return to nuclear disarmament talks only if China suspends aid to the Stalinist country. "Even the UN Security Council resolution against North Korea carries a provision stipulating that no UN sanctions should affect the North Korean people's livelihood, economic...

An American destroyer tailed a North Korean ship Tuesday as it sailed along China's coast, U.S. officials said, amid concerns the vessel is carrying illicit arms destined for Myanmar.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A North Korean ship suspected of carrying illicit weapons cruised through waters off Shanghai on Tuesday en route to Myanmar, a news report said, as regional military officials and a U.S. destroyer kept a close eye on the vessel. Washington's top military commander in South Korea, meanwhile, warned that the communist regime is bolstering its guerrilla warfare capacity. Gen. Walter Sharp, who commands the 28,500 U.S. troops positioned in South Korea, said the North could employ roadside bombs and other guerrilla tactics if fighting breaks out again on the Korean peninsula. The two Koreas technically...

The Wall Street Journal reports on the German firm's shady dealings with the Iranian regime, which included helping the country develop "one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale." This story was even more shocking the first time I read it in the Washington Times.

Reuters has an article speculating what might happen with the North Korean ship Kang Nam. Latest news reports suggest the ship is bound for Myanmar, a country unlikely to abide by any United Nations resolution. No one really knows how this might unfold, but based on Obama's comments early last week, I think the ship will not be allowed to complete its journey. These comments in particular describe the policy. Obama said that, in recent years, North Korea's provocations have been "rewarded" as Western countries offered fuel, food and loans in exchange for promises of good behavior that are eventually...

A senior U.S. military official told The Associated Press on Friday that a Navy ship, the USS John S. McCain, is relatively close to the North Korean vessel but had no orders to intercept it. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Any chance for an armed skirmish between the two ships is low, analysts say, though the North Korean crew is possibly armed with rifles.

SEOUL, South Korea – A North Korean-flagged ship under close watch in Asian waters is believed to be heading toward Myanmar carrying small arms cargo banned under a new U.N. resolution, a South Korean intelligence official said Monday. Still, analysts say a high seas interception — something North Korea has said it would consider an act of war — is unlikely.

A U.S. Navy destroyer is tailing a North Korean ship suspected of carrying illicit weapons toward Myanmar in what could be the first test of new U.N. sanctions against the North over its recent nuclear test, a leading TV network said Sunday. The South Korean news network YTN, citing an unidentified intelligence source in the South, said the U.S. suspects the cargo ship Kang Nam is carrying missiles and related parts. Myanmar's military government, which faces an arms embargo from the United States and the European Union, has reportedly bought weapons from North Korea. YTN said the U.S. has deployed...

Two European companies — a major contractor to the U.S. government and a top cell-phone equipment maker — last year installed an electronic surveillance system for Iran that human rights advocates and intelligence experts say can help Iran target dissidents. Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), a joint venture between the Finnish cell-phone giant Nokia and German powerhouse Siemens, delivered what is known as a monitoring center to Irantelecom, Iran's state-owned telephone company.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain says the U.S. should board a North Korean ship it is tracking if hard evidence shows it is carrying missiles or other cargo in violation of U.N. resolutions. McCain says that such cargo would contribute to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to nations that pose a direct threat to the United States.

Q: Admiral Mullen, Secretary Gates, currently the U.S. military is tracking a North Korean-flagged ship, the Kang Nam, which is suspected of proliferating either weaponry, nuclear materials or missile parts. What are your options n terms of enforcing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874? Are you prepared to board the ship at this time? ADM. MULLEN: Without going into specific details, clearly we're -- we intend to vigorously enforce the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874, to include -- options to include certainly a hail and query. There are -- part of the UNSCR is to, if a vessel like this...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Navy is monitoring a North Korean ship at sea under new U.N. sanctions that bar Pyongyang from exporting weapons including missile parts and nuclear materials, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

For two weeks now the US, Japan, South Korea, Russia and China have been wrestling with the response to North Korea’s nuclear test on May 25. Once again it is nothing more than a gesture, filled with empty rhetoric. The plan is for shipping from North Korea to be boarded and inspected if it is suspected nuclear or ballistic missile technology is being transferred to another country. Sounds great and it is a good approach. The Kennedy administration took this course of action during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Soviet ships were never boarded because they knew they would...

In a sign of growing concern in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government over US President Barack Obama's Middle East policies, Minister-without-Portfolio Yossi Peled proposed Israeli sanctions on the US in a letter to cabinet ministers on Sunday.... In the 11-page letter, obtained by The Jerusalem Post from a minister on Monday, Peled recommends steps Israel can take to compensate for the shift in American policy, which he believes has become hostile to Israel. "Obama's ascendance represents a turning point in America's approach to the region, especially to Israel," he wrote in the letter. "The new administration believes that in order...

A German businessman on trial for selling graphite to Iran to make rocket nozzles has admitted the offense. At the opening of his trial on April 8, the 63-year-old businessman on trial for selling Iran 16 tons of graphite to make rocket nozzles initially rejected all 12 counts of the indictment. However, in a statement read out by his lawyers, he has now admitted to the offense.

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The United Nations slapped sanctions on three North Korean firms accused of backing missile development, in its first concrete action against Pyongyang over its April 5 rocket launch. A committee agreed on the sanctions after the Security Council condemned North Korea for its launch -- a statement that had so incensed the communist state that it stormed out of a six-nation denuclearization agreement. The move bans transactions and calls on UN member-states to freeze the assets of two defensive companies -- Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation and Korea Ryonbong General Corporation -- along with the Tanchon...

It never ceases to amaze me that people--including professors of political science, international affairs experts, and journalists--never seem to understand what sanctions are about. They think that the only purpose of sanctions is to get the other side to change its behavior. Obviously, that's preferable but it is also hard. When Iran, Syria, North Korea, or Cuba don't transform themselves, legions of--how can I put this politely--not very wise people proclaim that the sanctions have failed and thus should be abandoned. No, that misses the point. There are at least three other major purposes that sanctions serve. First, and most...

The United States, Japan and South Korea will view the launch as a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution passed in 2006 after Pyongyang carried out the nuclear test and other missile tests. That resolution, number 1718, demands North Korea "suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program." U.N. Security Council diplomats have told Reuters on condition of anonymity that no country was considering imposing new sanctions but the starting point could be discussing a resolution for the stricter enforcement of earlier sanctions. Both Russia and China, the latter the nearest the reclusive North has to a major...

President Obama said that North Korea violated international rules when it tested a rocket that could be used for long-range missiles, and he called on the United Nations Security Council to take action. “This provocation underscores the need for action, not just this afternoon at the Security Council but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons,” Mr. Obama said. “Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something.” The United States Northern Command issued a statement that North Korea’s taepodong 2 missile flew over Japan, with its payload landing in the Pacific Ocean. “No...

As a general rule, economic sanctions are a poor foreign policy instrument: hard to enforce (think Burma), prone to corruption (think Oil for Food), rarely effective (think Cuba). But in the case of Iran, let's make an exception. We say this after five years of futile diplomatic efforts -- spearheaded by the Europeans and backed by the Bush Administration -- to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear programs and comply with binding U.N. Security Council resolutions. Now the only thing standing between the mullahs and a bomb is either punitive sanctions or a military strike, probably Israeli, which could engulf...

"We live in a free country. Our liberties are manifold and are the envy of the world. In the very top tier of those liberties, enshrined in the First Amendment, is “the right of the people . . . to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Many of those petitions are presented to judges. Every judge knows that a disturbingly high percentage of them involve petty slights, or imagined injuries, or matters that lie well beyond the reach of the judicial writ, but most judges will agree that it is important at least to listen to them --...

Obama intel chief violating Iran sanctions? Board member of Chinese government-owned company in deal with Tehran Charles "Chas" Freeman JERUSALEM – President Obama's nominee for a top intelligence post sits on the board of a major oil company owned by the Chinese government that is in the midst of a multibillion dollar deal with Iran which may violate U.S. sanctions, WND has learned. The oil company is widely seen as conducting business deals meant to expand China's influence worldwide. One of its recent attempts to purchase a large U.S. oil firm drew bipartisan congressional opposition amid fears the deal would...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The time is right for reevaluating US sanctions on Cuba, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says in a new report, calling for allowing Cuba to buy US goods on credit, US media reported Sunday. Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana's opinions are attached to a report due to be released Monday that could add fuel to momentum toward change in almost five decades of US policy seeking to isolate Cuba, the Americas' only communist country. The United States and Cuba do not have full diplomatic relations. And Washington has had a full economic...

The report would probably seem preposterous if it weren't for the fact that Team Obama already waived sanctions on Syria and is considering opening travel to Cuba. It's like watching Carter on Speed. This latest news comes from the February 18, 2009 edition of Geostrategy Direct (subscribers only): Snip The officials said the new Obama administration of has decided to end sanctions against Iranian government agencies or companies that aid Teheran's missile and nuclear program. The officials said Israel has been informed of the new U.S. policy. "We were told that sanctions do not help the new U.S. policy of...