Iran Sanctions Debate Flares Up on the Hill

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

Stories we're following today: Thursday, May 26, 2011.

Senators Want to Tighten Sanctions on Iran - Reuters [link]

• Senators proposed further tightening sanctions on Iran on Wednesday, reflecting fears that companies overseas, particularly in China, are evading U.S. penalties imposed last year for doing business with Iran.
• The Senate bill was introduced a day after the Obama administration penalized seven foreign firms, including Venezuela's state-owned oil company, for trading with Iran.

What Can US Sanctions on Iran Do? - Michael Adler in Politico [link]

• The goal is to increase pressure to “sharpen the choice for Iran” — which continues to insist that its nuclear program is peaceful and legal under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The sanctions’ economic cost is designed to get Iran to rein in its nuclear program as a guarantee it does not seek the bomb.
• Yet while there is no question U.N. sanctions and the kind of measures the United States and other countries are doing on their own are having an effect, the Iranian economy is not about to fold.
• Given this, the new U.S. sanctions are as much signs of frustration as effective action.
  

Just Say No to Another $100 Million for GMD - Kingston Reif in Nukes of Hazard [link]

• An amendment to the House Defense Authorization Bill by Loretta Sanchez (D-CA [would cut] the additional $100 million added by the Committee for the ground-based mid-course defense (GMD) system (National Missile Defense) based in Alaska and California.
• There are a number of reasons why the additional $100 million would be better spent elsewhere (or not at all).
• Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly testified to Congress earlier this year that he didn't need or want additional money for GMD because MDA has altered its plans until they solve the problem that caused the most recent test failure.

The Incredible Shrinking Ahmadinejad - Barbara Slavin in Foreign Policy [link]

• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is now discovering what his predecessors in Islamic Iran's unique dual system of government all learned to their sorrow: You serve at the pleasure of the supreme leader, and he prefers his presidents weak.
• The swiftness of Ahmadinejad's fall and the degree of invective -- charges against his entourage have ranged from sorcery to treason -- are shocking even to those inured to Iran's brutally personal politics.
• This may reflect in part the pressure the regime is facing in areas ranging from foreign policy -- where ally Syria is struggling to contain mass protests -- to the anemic, sanctions-plagued economy.
  

Uranium Deuteride Initiatiors Redux - Jeffrey Lewis in Arms Control Wonk [link]

• Paragraph 35 of the [IAEA] Iran report reveals that Iran conducted “experiments involving the explosive compression of uranium deuteride to produce a short burst of neutrons” — research that has no known application other than for nuclear weapons.te
• Although this information was reported in December 2009, this is the most explicit IAEA confirmation of the allegation to date.

Taliban Say They Won't Hit Nuclear Arsenal - Matthew Rosenberg and Owais Tohid in The Wall Street Journal [link]

• The Taliban has no plans to attack Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, its spokesman declared, as the militants kept up their campaign to avenge Osama bin Laden's death, ramming a pickup truck laden with explosives into a police station and killing six people.
• It was impossible to judge the sincerity of Mr. Ehsan's declaration regarding Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Even if the Pakistan Taliban has no designs on the arms, there are myriad Islamist groups in Pakistan, including al Qaeda, that are believed to have interest in acquiring nuclear weapons.
• A larger assault earlier this week by the Pakistan Taliban on a naval base renewed fears that Pakistan's sizable nuclear arsenal could be vulnerable.

International Partners to Discuss Removing Radiological Materials From Lighthouses - Martin Matishak in Global Security Newswire [link]

• Nonproliferation officials from around the globe are due to gather in Moscow on Friday to discuss continuing efforts to secure energy sources used to power Soviet-built naval structures, including lighthouses, that could be used in a radiological "dirty bomb," Global Security Newswire has learned.
• The devices were deployed along the Arctic coast to power unmanned lighthouses and navigation beacons, along with providing reliable energy sources in other remote locations within the former Soviet Union.