US Scrambles for Support for Iran Sanctions

The US is rushing to assemble support for tougher economic sanctions against Iran ahead of talks scheduled for Thursday. With Russia and China looming as potential spoilers in the UN Security Council, the administration hopes to assemble a coalition that could independently enact sanctions. But the US’ European allies oppose a gas or fuel embargo, which they see as a “blunt instrument” that could hurt the Iranian people, the New York Times reports.

Support for some kind of sanctions has grown since Friday’s revelation that Iran has been hiding a second nuclear enrichment site, and Robert Gates thinks there’s still “a pretty rich list” of soft spots the US could target, like energy equipment and technology. But some fear that Iran won't respond to sanctions, since it's been under some form of them since 1979, and is by now used to isolation. (More Iran stories.)