U.S. ready for new sanctions on Iran, military strike cannot be altogether ruled out

May 24: Despite the sanctions imposed in March by the U.S. and the International community’s watchdog, Iran has simply defied and refused to give up its uranium enrichment program. Earlier U.S. and the International community, especially key allies of United States in Europe imposed economic sanctions to build the pressure over Iran.

Reports now confirm that the economy has been seriously hit in the state after restrictions on business and trade. The first sanctions, approved by the U.N. aimed at putting financial constraints on the companies that were directly involved with the enrichment program. But later, the unilateral actions by U.S. targeted more firms and tried blocking many of the financial activities in the region. Trade suffered during this period as costs soared and imports became expensive.

The U.S. further cautioned many communities to refrain from helping Iran and cut down their ties with the aggressor. Dollar transactions have been temporarily halted by many institutions, including Germany’s Commerz Bank. The same was observed by Barclay’s, HSBC, Standard Chatered, Credit Suisse Group, Dutch Bank, ABN Amro and many more.

However, Iran has bluntly refused to comply and yield to the pressures. According to U.S. reports, the activities and the enrichment sites have stepped up rather than being stepped down.

Further, the criticism of ElBaradei has added further frustrations on the peaceful resolution of the crisis. ElBaradei, after a recent visit suggested that Iran must be allowed to continue with a part of its enrichment program. The IAEA chief, ElBaredi, will be addressing a joint U.S.-Russian conference on nuclear proliferation on Thursday.

At the same time U.S. envoy to U.N., Zalmay Khalilzad has expressed his disappointment on the comments of ElBaredi.

The U.S. is now looking for new sanctions and has already brought it to the notice of the community. As Iran’s leaders continue to defy all measures, U.S. will try putting additional pressures and there is a possibility of a military strike. However, considering the Democrats approach in the House, a military strike has a very limited scope.