Obama: Sanctions Send "Unmistakable Message" to Iran

Today's top nuclear policy stories, with excerpts in bullet form.

Stories we're following today, Thursday, June 10, 2010: 

U.N. Approves New Sanctions to Deter Iran - The New York Times [link]

• The United Nations Security Council leveled its fourth round of sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program on Wednesday.
• Congress is expected to pass a package of unilateral sanctions against Iran, and European leaders will begin discussing possible measures at a summit meeting next week.
• “Nobody is suggesting that these sanctions are not going to have an impact,” said Ray Takeyh, an Iran expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The question is whether they will put sufficient pressure on Iran to come back to the negotiating table in a more earnest and a more compromising mood.”
• For a summary of the contents of the sanctions, click here.  For more on the timeline of Iran's nuclear program, click here.

Clinton Says Opponents of Penalties Can Still Aid Diplomacy - The New York Times [link]

• Reaching out to the two countries that voted against new sanctions on Iran, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that she thought Brazil and Turkey would continue to play an important role in diplomatic efforts with the Iranian government.
• Mrs. Clinton defended the sanctions resolution, saying that it had been approved by an “overwhelming majority” in the United Nations Security Council.
• [The vote] vindicated the Obama administration’s strategy of trying to engage Tehran diplomatically while also gradually building support for pressure.
• Our goal is to end any doubts or questions about the purpose of Iran’s nuclear program, and to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,” Clinton said.
  
  

Defense Bill Boosts Missile Scrutiny - Politico [link]

• As Congress, prodded by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, casts a more watchful eye on Pentagon spending and contracting procedures, even missile defense programs may no longer get a free pass.
• In the defense authorization bill, the Senate Armed Services Committee has included two new provisions.
• The first requires the Missile Defense Agency to start laying down a “baseline,” or an initial figure, for how much each of its programs should cost.
• The language would require MDA to report back to Congress on costs, so that when the government commits to buying missile systems, it will know how much they’re going to cost and how the purchase fits into the plans of combatant commanders.

Iran Sanctions: Now What? - Arms Control Wonk [link]

• Everyone — or President Obama and the French Foreign Ministry, at least — has declared that the door is still open to diplomacy.Mere hours before the sanctions vote, the Vienna Group gave the IAEA their formal response to the Joint Declaration by Iran, Turkey, and Brazil.
• U.S. representatives in New York and Vienna praised the leaders of Brazil and Turkey as well-intentioned and sincere in their search for common ground.
• The Iranian Foreign Ministry says it will respond after studying the text. So far, at least, Tehran has not followed through on its threats to withdraw from the Joint Declaration after the passage of sanctions, implying that its offer, too, remains on the table.

A View from the Dark Side

Stop the New START - Ed Feulner in The Washington Times [link]

• The Obama administration's overly idealistic pursuit of a reduction in American and Russian stockpiles of nuclear arms has led it to actually sign a woefully flawed treaty.
• Under New START, U.S. conventional warheads would be counted toward the treaty's warhead and launcher limits, but tactical nuclear weapons wouldn't be counted. That's a problem, because Russia enjoys a 10-to-1 numeric advantage over the United States in such weapons.
• So the United States could find itself facing an actual nuclear missile gap.
• New START would take us several steps in the wrong direction. It would make America more vulnerable, not less.