Washington, September 30: The White House is weighing sanctions targeting Iran’s dependence on gasoline imports and insurance firms that underwrite the trade, even as they focus on diplomacy, including a meeting in Geneva on Thursday, to rein in Iran’s nuclear program.
U.S. President Barack Obama warned Iran last week to come clean about the program, which Washington fears is a cover to build atomic weapons, or face “sanctions that bite.” His warning followed the disclosure of a secret uranium enrichment facility near the holy Iranian city of Qom.
The United States will hold direct talks with Iran in Geneva, along with France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China. U.S. officials say they will demand that Iran allow U.N. nuclear inspectors unfettered access to the Qom site, as well as to documents and personnel.
Despite Obama’s comments, administration officials say that for now they hope Western powers can persuade Iran to address concerns about its nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for the peaceful generation of electricity.
Publicly, officials are reluctant to discuss the steps they are considering, wary of creating an impression they view diplomacy as merely a smokescreen for eventual sanctions.
But Obama’s warning to Iran and the increased chatter about sanctions in Washington is very deliberate, Iran experts say.
“If the Iranians are not convinced that there is a persuasive amount of economic pressure that might be applied, then they are more likely to be recalcitrant on Thursday,” said Suzanne Maloney from the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center.
DIPLOMACY IS ‘PLAN A’
“I don’t mean to suggest it is a bluff, but the sanctions talk is to set the stage for plan A, which is the diplomacy. Everything I have heard from the administration is that they genuinely understand the difficulty of sanctions,” she said.
Sanctions “are not an instrument that can produce results with speed,” said Ray Takeyh, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations, who was, until recently, an adviser to the Obama administration.
Mindful of the limitations of sanctions, the administration has consulted outside experts for their views on the most effective way to implement such measures.
The White House is being urged to consider a wide range of options, including choking off gasoline supplies, a popular idea among U.S. lawmakers, although experts stress it is no “silver bullet” and must be part of a battery of measures.
U.S. officials are considering ways to discourage big financial firms from providing insurance for shipments to Iran. Such moves could affect big European companies such as Lloyd’s of London and Munich Re.
“The key fulcrum is the insurance and reinsurance companies,” said Mark Dubowitz, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies policy institute. “It’s difficult to ship without insurance and reinsurance.”
The U.N. Security Council has already imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran for refusing to freeze uranium enrichment but they have had only a limited impact and Tehran insists it be allowed to pursue its nuclear program.
–Agencies