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Obama faces pressure over Iran policy

30 September 2010 01:49 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Barack Obamaâ€™s policy to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability is under pressure from members of Congress, who argue that Washington should make clear it will consider military action unless sanctions yield swift results, APA reports quoting â€œFinancial Timesâ€.
This comes in spite of the administration arguing that sanctions are proving more effective than expected, with companies and countries severing Iran ties.
â€œOur goal here is to convince Iran to stop its nuclear weapons development programme by economic and diplomatic means if we can but [to make clear] that we are prepared to use military means if we must,â€ said Joseph Lieberman, the independent senator from Connecticut, in an interview with the Financial Times.
â€œItâ€™s time to move from the mantra that military action is [just] another option on the table . . . There is only so long that we are going to go down a path of diplomacy and sanctions.â€
Howard Berman, the Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee, said recently the administration had â€œmonths, not yearsâ€ to make sanctions work. He added that military action was preferable to accepting an Iran with nuclear weapons capability.
Mr Lieberman said the administration should review its policy at the end of this year with a mind to adopting a tougher stance. He acknowledged that sanctions were biting but took a â€œvery scepticalâ€ view of Iranâ€™s signals about resuming talks on its nuclear programme.
The Obama administration has explicitly warned Israel not to attack Iran and officials are wary of launching a US strike that could spark a regional war.
But officials recognise that there is little immediate prospect of another round of UN sanctions. The pressure from Capitol Hill focuses on the administrationâ€™s limited diplomatic options if the current approach does not work.
A senior administration official argued that the existing policy of sanctions plus diplomacy could still produce results. For example, US sanctions had caused a leading Turkish energy company, Tupras, to stop selling refined oil to Iran. Reliance, the Indian oil group, was also â€œway aheadâ€ of its government in cutting Iran ties because of US unilateral sanctions.
â€œMany governments are conflicted because they have relations with Iran,â€ he said. â€œBut companies have a bottom line they need to pay attention to.â€
The US is trying to ensure that China does not fill the gap left by other countries, sending a delegation of diplomats and treasury officials to Beijing this week.
However, the official conceded that there was â€œnot sufficient trustâ€ between Iran and the international community to move straight to negotiations aimed at settling the confrontation over Tehranâ€™s nuclear ambitions. Instead, the aim was to â€œmove incrementallyâ€ and start with â€œconfidence-building stepsâ€.
That would involve discussing a plan first suggested a year ago under which Iran would export some of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in return for fuel for a civilian reactor in Tehran. The US would want the proposal to be revised so that Iran would retain less enriched uranium than that needed for one nuclear weapon.
Iran has enriched some uranium to the level of 19.75 per cent purity â€“ closer to weapons-grade level. The official said the technical problems encountered by Iranâ€™s nuclear programme had secured more time for the present policy to succeed.