U.S. Imposes New Sanctions Against Iran’s Military

The United States today announced its broadest sanctions package against Iran since the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution, designating its Al-Quds force a terrorist entity, its Revolutionary Guard Corps a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and moving to isolate individuals and financial institutions linked to the Iranian military, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, Oct. 24).

The Bush administration is expected to designate the Al-Quds force, the foreign operations division of the Revolutionary Guard, as a supporter of terrorism under U.S. Executive Order 13224 signed by U.S. President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr., who announced the sanctions together with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, warned that financial support for the Revolutionary Guard is deeply rooted within the Iranian financial system, making it likely that the first measures specifically targeting another country’s military could also harm Iran’s civilian economy.

The Revolutionary Guard “is so deeply entrenched in Iran's economy, that it is increasingly likely that if you are doing business with Iran you are doing business with the IRGC,” Paulson said.

The administration listed nine businesses, three banks and five Revolutionary Guard leaders included under the new sanctions.  The Iranian Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Ministry is also covered by the measures, the Post reported.

Rice said the United States is “committed to a diplomatic solution” to address the standoff between Iran and Western powers over Iran’s nuclear program, but warned that the Bush administration would “increase the costs to Iran” until it complies with international demands over terrorism and proliferation issues.

Rice said the sanctions would create “a powerful deterrent” to business interests considering working with Iran while also protecting the international economy.

In an effort to ramp up pressure on Tehran over the last year, the United States has sold billions of dollars in weapons to Israel and other Middle Eastern allies while leading a push in the U.N. Security Council to place a new round of international sanctions on Iran.

The punitive measures are expected to isolate much of Iran’s military and its financial collaborators, according to U.S. officials.  Hundreds of firms outside the United States might be forced to cut their business ties with Iran or risk their financial ties to the United States (Robin Wright, Washington Post, Oct. 25).

Meanwhile, Iranian nuclear negotiators said that progress could be made in defusing Iran’s nuclear tensions with the West, even as despite President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed his country would not back down, the Associated Press reported.

Former top nuclear envoy Ali Larijani said that constructive ideas had been introduced in talks yesterday with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Italian Premier Romano Prodi.

"In the last part of the talks with Mr. Prodi and Mr. Solana, ideas were introduced that were constructive and that might lead to further progress," Larijani said without giving further details.

Ahmadinejad said yesterday that Iran could not be pressured by two previous Security Council sanctions resolutions on Iran’s refusal to halt its uranium enrichment, which could produce a nuclear weapon ingredient.

“The so-called dossier at the Security Council is a pile of papers that have no value.  They can add to those worthless papers every day because it has no effect on the will of the Iranian nation," Iranian state media quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

He said moves to isolate Iran would only make the country more self-reliant, adding that Iran would not abandon its right to produce nuclear fuel and enrich uranium.

“We are for talks, but we won't negotiate over our rights because it means giving up part of the rights of the nation,” Ahmadinejad said (Alessandra Rizzo, Associated Press/Washington Post, Oct. 24).

Solana expressed concern yesterday that Larijani’s continued involvement in nuclear negotiations after Saeed Jalili replaced him as Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator this weekend could complicate future efforts to diffuse the nuclear standoff, Reuters reported.

“We have to let some time pass to see how these latest waves in Iran's power structure settle,” Solana said.

"It will be very important because the negotiation is already a difficult negotiation.  If you also must negotiate with various players at the same time, it will be more complicated still."

“They were both at the meeting, Larijani and Jalili.  Larijani led the meeting, he was the one that took on all of the weight of the meeting,” he said.  “So he will continue to play an important role, in my judgment, in Iran's power structure” (Phil Stewart, Reuters I/Washington Post, Oct. 24).

U.N. nuclear watchdog safeguards head Olli Heinonen plans to meet with Iranian officials in Tehran next week, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday.

“A new meeting will take place on Monday in Tehran with the visit of Olli Heinonen,” Iranian state media quoted Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, as saying (Tehran Times, Oct. 25).

International Atomic Energy Agency officials intend to closely monitor the operation of the Bushehr nuclear power plant now under construction in Iran, Reuters reported Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov saying today.

Some Western powers believe that Iran could use nuclear fuel that Russia has agreed to provide for the plant instead in a nuclear weapons program.  Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is intended only to generate electricity.

“After the fuel is delivered to Iran it will instantly come under the full and total control of the IAEA,” Ivanov said, adding that the timetable for the fuel’s delivery would be determined as payment disputes are resolved with Iran.

Russia has repeatedly postponed the plant’s completion, saying that Iran has fallen behind on payments for the facility.

Ivanov said the U.N. nuclear watchdog would begin keeping tabs on the nuclear fuel before it leaves Russian custody and would continue to monitor it until it returns to Russia to be reprocessed.

“The IAEA will arrive in Russia to put a seal on the containers with fuel,” said Ivanov, a former defense minister and possible Russian presidential contender.

"Saying total control, I mean using video cameras and other equipment.  If cameras are off for even one minute, it will be a major violation of IAEA rules and norms,” he said (Reuters II/Washington Post, Oct. 25).

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