Time for sanctions against Iran

By James Talent

After years of fruitless efforts to change Iranian behavior using soft diplomacy, it is time to employ serious economic sanctions to show Iran we are serious.

Let's remember that Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons is not the only issue. Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. It has funded and armed Hezbollah and Hamas and has supplied our enemies in Iraq with improvised explosive devices that have killed and wounded American soldiers.

Recent press reports have identified weapons now flowing into and being used in Afghanistan.

The Iranian regime has brutalized its own people, including murdering demonstrators in the streets who were peacefully protesting a sham election.

Iran's leaders have revealed themselves to be brutal tyrants set on using violence and terror to control their own people and neighboring countries. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly denied the Holocaust and vowed to wipe Israel off the map.

U.S. intelligence agencies have uncovered documentary evidence that Iran has not just a uranium-enrichment program, but the sort of high explosives-testing program necessary to develop a nuclear weapon, a surprisingly advanced ballistic missile program and a program to develop a re-entry vehicle with military nuclear applications.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has recently found that Iran has installed more than 8,000 centrifuges to refine its low-enriched uranium into weapons-grade material.

It is in this context that we should view the Iranian quest for nuclear weapons. A regime with no qualms about arming terrorists to kill Americans, Iraqis and Israelis is not a regime the world can allow to become a nuclear power.

President Ahmadinejad spoke before the United Nations last week -- the same U.N. that has passed Security Council Resolution 1696, which requires the immediate suspension of all enrichment-related activities by Iran and strict monitoring by the IAEA. After rejecting every U.N., IAEA, European and U.S. effort to convince Iran to stop enriching uranium, Ahmadinejad's very presence in the General Assembly was a shameful mockery of serious diplomacy. No doubt his words to that body removed all doubt. Iran will never stop developing weapons of mass destruction without serious action by the international community.

At a minimum, the U.S. should engage in strong economic sanctions against foreign companies that transport, finance, broker or in any way facilitate the export of refined petroleum products, including gasoline and diesel fuel, to Iran. Although it has massive oil reserves, Iran has weak refining capabilities, so these sanctions would both embarrass and hurt the Ahmadinejad regime. If there is any doubt of this, ask yourself why anti-American Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez recently traveled to Iran to publicly assure Ahmadinejad he would supply gasoline in the event of these U.S. sanctions. Ahmadinejad knows that he is vulnerable and that these sanctions would hurt him badly.

It is time to show the Iranian regime that we are serious and to give our diplomats something more tangible to work with.

Iran's days as the leading exporter of terrorism and the weapons that kill American soldiers must come to an end. But as of now, Ahmadinejad has no reason to believe we are serious about stopping him. It's time to take serious steps to demonstrate to him that he is wrong.

James Talent represented Missouri in the U.S. Senate from 2002 to 2007 and in U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2001. He is a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.