Iran Nuclear Watch: John Bolton – “Bush Administration is Considering Other Diplomatic and Economic Options to Deter Iran”

U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, seen here in this file photo in Berlin from Jan. 13, said Thursday that it would be ‘simply prudent’ for the Bush administration to consider other options for dealing with Iran, in the event that diplomacy in the U.N. Security Council fails.

ASSociated Press: Bolton Hints at Other Options for Iran

The Bush administration is considering other diplomatic and economic options to deter
Iran from developing nuclear weapons if diplomacy at the United Nations Security Council fails, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said Thursday.

“It would be, I think, simply prudent to be looking at other options,” Bolton told reporters.

Prudent, measured responses have been the hallmark of the United States in dealing with this Iranian uranium enrichment crisis – unlike Iran.

He said the United States could suspend import allowances for Iranian rugs and pistachios, which were relaxed years ago in hopes of stimulating small business in Iran, and consider a crackdown on alleged financial crimes similar to U.S. pursuit of alleged fraud by North Korea. There are steps other governments could take as well, Bolton said, including financial and travel restrictions.

The United States has had no diplomatic and few economic ties with Iran since the 1979 storming of the American Embassy in Tehran.

The United States accuses Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons under the cover of a legitimate civilian energy program, and has long favored using the punitive deterrent powers of the Security Council to bring international pressure to bear on the clerical regime.

The Iran case is now finally before the Security Council but Bolton did not sound confident the strategy will work.

Bolton said the “obvious difficulty” represented by the three-week delay and hefty diplomatic muscle required to win a first, mild rebuke to Iran from the Security Council last month “says something about the difficulty of the road ahead.”

Obtaining the agreement of Russia and China to punish Iran through the United Nations Security Council is dead. Those countries simply have too many economic and political ties to sanction Iran.

What Bolton is outlining is the next course of action against Iran – outside the United Nations.

Stay tuned……

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