Iran: Quarantined: Major geostrategic diplomatic shift in USA measures to enforce UN's "isolation of Iran" resolution

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“West Tries a New Tack to Block Iran’s Nuclear Agenda“ by By Helene Cooper and Steven R. Weisman, NYT (Jan2,2k7):

The United States and its allies in Europe, in a tacit acknowledgment that sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council in late December are too weak to force Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, have embarked on a new strategy to increase the financial and psychological pressure.

UN "too weak to force Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions..."

The plan is to use the language of the resolution to help persuade foreign governments and financial institutions to cut ties with Iranian businesses, individuals in its nuclear and missile programs and, by extension, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Stuart Levey, under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.

The Guard and its military wing are identified as a power base for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Under his administration, American officials said, the Guard has moved increasingly into commercial operations, earning profits and extending its influence in Iran in areas involving big government contracts — including building airports and other infrastructure, oil production and the providing of cellphones.

Bush administration officials, who asked not to be identified because they were discussing diplomatic plans, said envoys would soon head abroad to press officials of foreign governments and banks to interpret the Security Council resolution equally aggressively.

"Governments and banks" > "interpret the UN Security Council resolution equally aggressively"

The new strategy builds on the [USA] Treasury Department’s efforts over the past few months to get Western banks to scale back business with Iran or risk running afoul of American laws. In 2006, the European banks Credit Suisse First Boston and UBS said they would not do any new business with Iran.

No new biz with Iran.

It is hard to assess how deeply the financial actions may cut, since the most willing parties to the effort — the United States and Europe — have few business dealings with Iran. The United States does have laws that give it considerable leeway to impose financial restrictions on banks and companies doing business in Iran, while European law does not.

That said, Britain is also backing the new push, as is France, although to a lesser extent. Germany, with far more business interests in Iran, is not quite as eager. Japan is not a member of the Security Council, and the country is heavily dependent on the Persian Gulf for oil. But Japanese government officials have recently indicated their willingness to limit some of their business dealings with Iran.

MidEast > Iran

Last month, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation announced that it would not issue any new loans for Iranian projects until Iran resolved the nuclear impasse with the West. In addition, Japan has reduced its stake in an initial $2 billion deal to develop Iran’s largest onshore oil field at Azadegan to 10 percent from the originally agreed 75 percent, citing concern about Iran’s nuclear program.

While United States officials have discussed what they are trying to do with their Russian and Chinese counterparts, the belief is that they have gone about as far as they are willing to go with the Security Council resolution that passed Dec. 23. Russia fought to keep certain entities off the list and to keep the list as narrow as possible.

The UN SC resolution names names of individuals, and specifies penalties.

Mr. Levey noted that the resolution cited three people as off limits to outside commercial transactions, and, in another section, prohibited transactions with agencies “owned or controlled” by them. The three, he said, are Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps; Gen. Hosein Salimi, who is in charge of the air force branch of the corps; and Ahmad Vahid Dastjerdi, who runs the Aerospace Industries Organization.

Thus, an effort to bar future foreign commercial or government involvement, including bank transactions, affecting missile programs and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is authorized by the resolution, Mr. Levey said.

Iranian Revolutionary Guard leaders sanctioned

“This resolution will be a big step forward in getting governments and financial institutions to pay more attention to Iran’s use of deceptive financial practices to facilitate its dangerous conduct and to stop doing business with the I.R.G.C.,” Mr. Levey said, referring to the Revolutionary Guard.

The resolution says that “all states” will “take the necessary measures” to bar “financial assistance” and “financial resources or services” related to nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The resolution’s appendix cites several government and private groups and 12 people as involved in those programs; interrupting foreign involvement with those groups and individuals is also part of the new campaign.

But American officials have no figures on the value of international business done with those cited in the resolution.

Undermine the self-assurance of Iranian officials

The United States and European officials said they had also begun trying maneuvers aimed at undermining the self-assurance of Iranian officials, especially those who travel abroad.

This is a cold, cold war of Europe, UK, USA, presumably Canada, Australia?, New Zealand? versusIran.

A war us going on, a war of diplomacy using financial weapons to grind nuclearization to a halt in Iran.

The article continues rather systematically and links these additional significant factors to the isolation of Iran

* four Iranian Revolutionary Guards were apphrehended in Iraq > Iranian subversive activities in Iraq

* Iran's business slump means it exports huge amounts of oil, but can't refine any for itself, so that it has to buy-back from foreign oil refiners at significant expense for Iranian accounts.

...international business was already emerging as a problem for Iran, which has vast oil fields but relatively little refining capacity. It imports 43 percent of its gasoline, according to the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, a Washington-based nonprofit group that follows energy issues.

Now, Iran can't borrow the capitalization it needs for its own oil projects, stalled in using oil profits to replenish and develop the national energy industry.

But, this latter fact makes Iran's desire for nuclear energy quite understandable in its own r+t, even aside from the country's overarching military-diplomatic nuclear ambitions.

--Politicarp

Further Research:

Iran will press ahead with nuclear work: president
Iran lays down challenge to Arab leaders