A week of sanctions

Just ten days ago the UN Security Council has agreed on new sanctions against Iran. In the meantime the USA as well as the European Union have relaesed their own lists of sanctions.

The USA will expand their penalties on more than thirty companies and persons that are believed to help Iran with its nuclear program. It's a new effort on trying to isolate Iran commercially but even if the new list includes top Iranian banks as well as commanders of the Revolutionary Guard, the effect is not clear yet. When Treasury secretary Timothy F. Geithner announced the new measures on wednesday he told the press that Iran would always try to find ways to evade the sanctions and continued to say:

"So our effort must be ongoing and unrelenting. And we will keep working on ways to intensify financial pressure on Iran"

Adding to the UN and US sanctions fhe foreign ministers of the EU have agreed on new measures against Iran. The EU sanctions are targeting Iran's commerce and include a new provision that could hit its heart: European companies are no longer allowed to invest in the Iranian oil and gas industry.

New sanctions on Iran more than likely

The UN Security Council is expected to introduce new sanctions on Iran as the Islamic Republic holds on to its nuclear programme. Just one week ago the Security Council published a new report, which says Iran possesses enough nuclear fuel now to build two atomic weapons if it is further enriched. The decision over new sanctions will probably be announced within the next few days and when you take a look on the latest criticism passed on by the international community on Iran, it is as good as certain that there will be new sanctions.

When Angela Merkel met Dmitrij Medwedew for a German-Russian summit this weekend they both agreed that the UN Security Council should introduce new sanctions on Iran, if the government of Ahmadinejad is not willing to give in on the nuclear issue.

Today on the 35-nation board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano the head of the agency called Iran a "special case" because it's constraining the work of the IAEA:

"Iran has not provided the necessary cooperation to permit the agency to confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities."

The Sunday Telegraph has published a story yesterday in which it is claimed that the regime in Tehran uses the Gulf port of Dubai to smuggle sophisticated technology for its uranium enrichement programme. The smuggled electronic and computer equipment, which is banned under UN sanctions, was produced by "one of Germany's leading electronics manufacturers" but the Telegraph states that this company didn't know the control systems were designated for Iran. It appears the German company has been scammed by its trading partner in Dubai that used false end-user certificates for companies in Asia.