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Watching for Ripple Effects as Sanctions Nip at Iran

(Wall Street Journal) Gerald F. Seib - It's still hard to know how much difference sanctions can make in the long run. The range of potential effects is exceptionally broad, from simply annoying the regime, to creating real costs and difficulties in keeping Iran's economy running, to creating enough pain to spark domestic unrest, to the ideal goal of prompting Tehran to alter its nuclear program. Still, the sanctions may at least be illustrating that there is an economic penalty for Iran's continued enrichment of uranium. More important, they have the potential to directly slow Iran's nuclear program by shutting off the flow of international financing and technology needed to keep elements of it moving ahead. "What we're trying to do is make it clear to the Iranians that there's a cost to continuing down this road," said one Obama administration aide deeply involved in the sanctions effort. "It sharpens the choice for these guys. One way to relieve the pressure is to make a different [nuclear] policy choice."
2010-07-26 08:55:02
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