Iran Sanctions - 3 Strikes Your Out or 3rd Time's the Charm?

This very well maybe our last chance of any diplomatic solutions with Iran and the international threat they pose.

While they are fishing today, President Bush needs to again see into the "soul" of Putin's eyes. We might have to hear him again tell us (ugh!) Putin's a good man.

A little more Presidential patronage, in exchange for support of some new sanctions, won't kill anybody. In fact, it very well may save lives.

Iran Focus has a commentary written by, Matthew Levitt, a senior fellow and director of the Stein Program on Terrorism, Intelligence and Policy at the Washington Institute, is former deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the U.S. Treasury Department.

The first two rounds of targeted and graduated sanctions have failed to change Iran's nuclear calculus.

For graduated sanctions to be effective, however, each deadline that passes without a change in Iran's behavior must be followed by another, more severe round of sanctions.....

So this third round is the moment of truth.

The danger is that today's diplomacy produces only more symbolic measures, watered down by multilateral negotiations whose goal is international consensus.

To avoid such failure, this round should fill the gaps left open by the first two U.N. resolutions. Specifically, it can target......

Levitt continues to outline in detail how the sanctions need to target more banks, the military, the Revolutionary Guard, and the need to squeeze international investments in the Iranian oil and gas industries.

-