(Foreign Policy) Matthew Levitt - Wednesday's UN Security Council resolution sanctioning Iran marks a critical turning point in the U.S.-led efforts to target Iran's illicit activities. The resolution focuses on Iran's nuclear-weapons and ballistic-missile programs; the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is responsible for these programs as well as the regime's support for terrorism; and the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, which has been directly involved in proliferation shipments. Though the lists of sanctioned entities are very precise, U.S. and other negotiators made sure that general "hooks" upon which additional actions could be "hung" were peppered throughout the body of the resolution. These will provide the U.S. and other states and multilateral bodies with the international imprimatur for further action. The writer, a senior fellow and director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, served as deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the U.S. Treasury Department from 2005 to 2007.
2010-06-14 10:51:53Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive