Sanction plan for Iran

Bill Gertz:

The Bush administration plans to move rapidly to organize and impose international economic sanctions on Iran, but not until after a Thursday U.N. deadline passes, according to Bush administration officials.
A senior official who has reviewed Iran's 21-page response said there is still hope Iran will agree before then to stop enriching uranium, although there are no indications Tehran is ready to do so. The Iranian response, sent privately last week to several nations, contains numerous references to how Iran is moving forward with its plans for uranium enrichment.
"Clearly, it falls short of meeting the condition that was set," the senior official said. "That condition was full suspension of enrichment activity."
International economic sanctions likely will be imposed after passage of a United Nations Security Council Chapter 7 resolution, and sanctions will be applied in stages.
The initial sanctions are expected to target Iran's weapons of mass destruction and missile programs and will be designed to make it more difficult for officials of the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to travel abroad and conduct business abroad.
A coalition of nations in Europe and Asia also is being organized to impose sanctions on Iran should the U.N. Security Council fail to take action after Thursday. Tougher sanctions will be imposed later if Iran continues to reject controls on its nuclear program and halt uranium enrichment.
The goal of sanctions will be to persuade Iran's government to suspend its enrichment activities, not to punish the Iranian people, the senior official said,.
Meanwhile, the officials said the State Department, White House and Pentagon are at odds over whether to give Iran another chance to halt enrichment activities.
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It does not make any sense to give Iran yet another last chance which she has already said she is not going to take. If the Russians and the Chinese don't go along, it is hard to expect that any sanctions will be effective. The Russians pretty much ignored the sanctions against Saddam and profited fromthe corruption in the oil for food program. They ahve been profiting in the sale of technology to Iran and I expect they will continue to sell to them, and the Chicoms will continue to purchase oil from them.