US wants more sanctions on Iran

[cal04]

The United States wants the international community to take more action against Iran, and impose more sanctions than those adopted Saturday by the UN Security Council, the State Department's number three diplomat has said.

"We don't think this resolution is enough in itself. We want the international community to take further action," US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said after the council slapped the first-ever UN sanctions on Iran, targeting its nuclear and ballistic missile programs in response to its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear fuel work.

"We would like to see more vigorous national and multilateral action against Iran, stronger sanctions - and not just UN Security Council sanctions but outside the Council - and we would like to see countries to stop doing business as usual with Iran," Mr Burns stressed in a conference call.

"We are certainly not going to put all of our eggs in the UN basket. We are going to try to convince countries - especially the European Union countries, Japan - to consider some of the financial measures that we have undertaken," added Mr Burns.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061224/pl_afp/irannuclearpoliticsun_061224003940

[necso]

1. That's just like the neocons:

get an "agreement", then immediately try to go beyond it -- to get what they wanted in the first place (like, for example, using signing statements).

Between this tactic (strategy) and that old neocon favorite, agree to my terms first -- then we can "negotiate", you have two pillars of neocon "diplomacy"

(Throw in make-threats, offer-bribes, and use-thuggery, and it's a pretty good overview of the basic neocon "philosophy".)

[BattyDem]

2. Um ... does anybody really care what the US wants anymore?

:shrug:

We're the world's arrogant bully. Everyone hates us. We have no credibility. When we make a demand at the UN, I can easily imagine every other country saying, "Yeah, yeah ... whatever!" Then the grownups of the world go back to talking about real solutions. :eyes: