Must impose crippling sanctions

The United States and its allies should quickly impose crippling sanctions on Iran if it refuses to end its nuclear weapons pursuit.
•As the United States and it allies head into talks with Iran, the president and other leaders have said Iran must now come fully clean about its nuclear activities during the talks or face crippling sanctions.

•The president said that if diplomacy does not work, “we will be in a much stronger position to, for example, apply sanctions that have bite.” French President Nicholas Sarkozy said, “We cannot let Iranian leaders gain time while the motors are running,” while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the West is “prepared to implement furthe and more stringent sanctions.”

•It is now time for Congress to move forward with the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act and other similar legislation to demonstrate to Iran that its days of stonewalling and deception are over. The bill urges the president to impose financial sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank and requires the sanctioning of any entity engaged in the importation into Iran of refined petroleum.

•With Iran forced to import as much as 40 percent of its gasoline, limiting access to such products would have a dramatic economic effect and weigh heavily on the regime’s domestic popularity.

•The United States could also cause the collapse of the Iranian banking system by refusing to clear international financial transactions from banks that continue to do business with Iranian banks.

•The credible threat of such crippling sanctions—combined with similar international sanctions—would offer a meaningful opportunity to convince Iran to recalculate its current nuclear policy.