WORLD / Middle East
U.S. eyes global sanctions on Iran leaders-report
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-05-29 11:35
The United States is pushing Europe and Japan to use broad sanctions to
financially pressure Iran's leadership if diplomacy fails to resolve an
international dispute over Iran's nuclear activities, the Washington Post
reported in its Monday editions.
The newspaper said the plan would target every Iranian official the Bush
administration sees as linked to nuclear enrichment as well as terrorism,
government corruption, suppression of religious or democratic freedom and
violence in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
It would restrict the Tehran government's access to foreign currency and
global markets, shut its overseas accounts and freeze assets held in
Europe and Asia, the newspaper reported, citing internal government memos
and interviews with three U.S. officials.
The plan was developed by a Treasury Department task force that reports
directly to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Washington Post said.
Consideration of global economic sanctions follows decades of unilateral
sanctions imposed by the United States against Iran.
The United Nations is demanding that Iran halt enrichment activities that
the West says are a cover for developing weapons. Iran says it only wants
to make fuel for nuclear power.
Internal U.S. assessments suggest sanctions would not impact Iran without
hurting some U.S. allies, the Washington Post said.
According to the report, U.S. officials hope the allies will carry out
the punitive measures if Iran refuses a package of incentives the
Europeans are preparing to offer soon.
Separately, The New York Times reported that Iran appeared to have slowed
it's efforts to produce nuclear fuel, according to European diplomats who
had reviewed reports from inspectors inside the country.
The newspaper quoted the diplomats as saying the slowdown (in uranium
enrichment) could be an effort by Iran to cool tensions in the nuclear
standoff with the West and possibly for Washington to begin direct talks
with Tehran.
"The pace is more diplomatic than technical," a senior European diplomat
who monitors the Iranian program was quoted as saying.. "They could
probably have gone faster. But they don't want to provoke."
But the Times said Bush administration hard-liners believed any slowdown
in enrichment might just be a tactical ploy by the government of Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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