US mulls over fresh strong curbs on Iran

New regulations to focus on elite Revolutionary Guards

The Obama administration, which has completed a fresh review of Iran’s nuclear progress, said the current troubles “give us a window to impose the first sanctions that may make the Iranians think that the nuclear programme isn’t worth the price tag.”
Citing unnamed officials, the New York Times on Sunday reported: “The long-discussed sanctions would initiate the latest phase in a strategy to force Iran to comply with the UN demands to halt production of nuclear fuel.”
This time, the White House wants to focus the new sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards corps because it does not want to anger Iranians by depriving them of Western goods, the report said.

The US is planning to go ahead with the sanctions despite acknowledging that the three previous rounds of restrictions have failed to deter Iran.
The administration also aims to get Arab and Asian nations to join Europe in cutting off financial transactions with front companies of the Revolutionary Guards.
Iran dismissed an end-of-2009 deadline imposed by the US and the West to accept a UN-drafted deal to swap most of its enriched uranium for nuclear fuel.
It came up with a counter-proposal, asking the West to either sell nuclear fuel to Iran, or swap its nuclear fuel for Tehran’s enriched uranium in smaller batches instead of at once as the UN plan calls for.

Nuclear showdown
The White House said Iran was “standing in its own way” by giving an ultimatum to world powers to accept its version of a deal to defuse the building nuclear showdown.
“The IAEA has a balanced proposal on the table that would fulfill Iran’s own request for fuel and has the backing of the international community,” Hammer said.
“If getting access to fuel is Iran’s objective, then there is absolutely no reason why the existing proposal, which Iran accepted in principle at Geneva, is insufficient. The Iranian government is standing in its own way,” he added.